How to Make Yogurtlu Ispanak

Now we’re going to get ready to make something really simple and easy and healthy, baby spinach with yogurt and a garlic sauce. Now what we’re going to need is three cups of baby spinach, some salt and pepper, two cloves of garlic, and I have one cup of plain cream yogurt, which I’ve already put some garlic in there. We’re going to just spoon that over on top.

So right here, I have our skillet getting really nice and hot. I'm going to use some olive oil here because anytime I like to make something that doesn’t use too much oil, I like to use the olive oil because it really gives a great texture and a great flavor.

While we’re waiting for our oil to get nice and hot, I’m just going to chop up our garlic. And this is really easy. But the great thing about spinach is it’s so healthy. It has iron and folate and a lot of beta carotene. It’s really good for the eyes. But one thing about spinach is everytime you cook it, it decreases by 3/4. So even though this looks like a lot, it’s really going to come to bit only one serving.

So if you’re making it for a dinner party, make sure you have a lot of spinach. And sometimes I like to add water to this. But even if you do add water, just a splash, because the spinach, when it cooks, it’s going to secrete some water too.

So you just want to saute at your garlic a little bit. Then we’ll add in our baby spinach. We don’t need to have to chop the spinach because it’s baby spinach. Just salty that up very nice. And once this gets a little hot, we’re going to add the spinach, little salt and pepper and that’s it. How easy was that?

So now it’s time to add our next spinach. This is going to cook up really fast, you’re going to see. Got a nice sizzle in there, I’ll flip it up around so it doesn’t burn. My husband loves it with the yogurt sauce. Me personally, I think plain is great because they already have that great garlic flavor. Now it’s a great time to add some salts, a little bit of pepper, and just saute for about a minute.

This looks pretty much done because we don’t want it’s cooked too much because it will kill all those rich vitamins I was talking about. So just turn it off. It smells really great. It looks good too. I’ll just get a serving potter right here. Spinach is so easy to make so if you are making it for people to come over, make it at the last minute. This way it doesn’t die everytime you eat it. It has a really great crisp flavor. You see how much it decreased?

So while it’s hot, you could take your delicious yogurt sauce, and just kind of spoon it over. Really looks so appetizing. And it’s going to go great with our kofte. Yogurt is a great way to wash the meat down. That’s why we even have a drink called—it’s a famous delicious Turkish drink that with yogurt, water and a little bit of sauce.

And now what I like to do is garnish with a little bit of paprika. Now when you’re putting the yogurt sauce on it, make sure your yogurt sauce is room temperature, because there’s nothing more in some cold yogurt on top of warm spinach. And that’s it. This is our delicious spinach with yogurt sauce. I hope you enjoy it. I’m going to go check on our koftes.

So now our koftes are ready. The kasseri cheese melted nicely. It looks beautiful. It smells great. I’m just going to put it on our serving platter now. Put it one-by-one, and then you get a spoon like this so you could strain all the oil. Just put it one-by-one. It looks delicious. It’s going to go great with our spinach and yogurt, and our iMam Bayildi. And we also have a sweet surprise in store for you today. We’re going to do dessert. And see why I like to use the red pepper? It has a great color.

We use the tomato. It gets too watery. We already have all these liquid from the oil from the meat. So we arrange it. And what I like to do sometimes is just take the pan and drizzle just a little of its own juice on top. Not too much, just to make it really nice and juicy. Also keeps it from drying out. So this is our delicious Kayik Kofte, one of my favorites growing up. I know you’ve been enjoying it. Now I’m going to check on our iMam Bayildi.

Now our delicious iMam Bayildi is ready too. And remember this is best served at room temperature or cold, and I have our serving platter right here. And like I said, you could always make this from the morning, and then just keep it at room temperature and just leave it in the fridge and just pick at it all day. It’s really delicious, and you’re going to see that it’s like mouth-watering with every bite.

And then what I like to do is take a little bit of the olive oil and just drizzle it on top. It’s really mouth watering and juicy. You’re going to see why the iMam fainted. So this is our famous, authentic historical Turkish dish, iMam Bayildi. I’m going to take a short break right now. When we come back, we’re going to start on our apricot dessert.