Cooking Without Recipes in Kaş | Seasonal Kitchen Tips

Sometimes people say to me, "There's nothing at home, what am I going to cook?"

Then I open the fridge.

Two courgettes, a few tomatoes, half a bowl of yoghurt, a little cheese, some rice left over from the day before…

There's food, really. It just hasn't been decided what it will become yet. :)

I think this is one of the most important things to learn in the kitchen. We don't always need a recipe. In fact, the way to truly learn how to cook runs partly through moving away from recipes.

Because cooking isn't just saying "200 grams of this, a spoonful of that." It's looking at the ingredient in your hand and understanding it, knowing what goes well with what, and being able to give up entirely on the dish you planned when you need to.

In my own kitchen, I usually think this way too.

First I don't ask "What am I going to make today?" but "What do I have today?"

Think about the ingredient first, not the dish

Let's say there are courgettes at home.

Instead of immediately searching for a "courgette recipe," think about the courgette itself.

You can roast them in the oven. You can sauté them in a pan. You can grate them and make fritters. You can slice them thinly and turn them into a salad. You can make a meze with yoghurt.

What else is there to go with it?

If there's a little yoghurt, you can make a sauce with garlic and olive oil. If there are a few walnuts, you can add them on top. If there are tomatoes, you can roast them together with the courgettes or prepare a separate salad.

All of a sudden, several different meal ideas start to come out of a single courgette.

I think the most important point of practical cooking is exactly here:

Not thinking that an ingredient belongs to only one dish.

In the kitchen, I ask myself 5 questions

When I'm preparing something with the ingredients I have, there are actually a few very simple questions in my head.

1. What is my main ingredient?

First I choose the thing I want to use today.

This might be an aubergine, sometimes chicken, sometimes lentils, sometimes just a few vegetables left in the fridge.

Especially if there's an ingredient that needs to be used within a few days, I usually start there.

2. What's the easiest way to cook it?

You don't need to prepare everything elaborately.

Sometimes it's enough to put the vegetables in the oven with good olive oil, salt and a little spice.

Sometimes just a few minutes turning them in a pan.

And sometimes not cooking them at all.

Especially in summer in Kaş, when tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and herbs are this good, there's really no need to change the ingredient much.

3. What adds freshness alongside it?

I like balance on the plate.

Cold garlic yoghurt can go beautifully next to a hot vegetable straight from the oven.

A little lemon can balance out a rich dish.

You can put a herb-heavy salad next to grilled meat.

Sometimes what makes a dish better isn't making a new dish, but putting the right thing next to it.

4. Does it need a bit of texture?

This small detail can really change a dish.

A few walnuts over a soft vegetable…

Roasted sesame over yoghurt…

Crispy bread over soup…

Almonds or seeds in a salad…

When there's something both soft and crunchy on the same plate, the meal becomes much more enjoyable.

5. Is something missing?

Before finishing the dish, I always taste it.

Is it missing salt?

Does it need a little acidity?

It could be lemon. It could be vinegar. It could be sumac.

Does it need a little olive oil?

Is it missing fresh herbs?

Sometimes what a dish you've worked on for hours needs isn't a new ingredient, but just a few drops of lemon.

There are actually some simple formulas

Instead of memorising recipes, once you learn a few simple logics, cooking becomes much easier.

For example:

Vegetable + a yoghurt-based sauce + something crunchy

Roasted aubergine + garlic yoghurt + walnuts.

Roasted courgette + strained yoghurt + roasted almonds.

Charred peppers + yoghurt + crispy chickpeas.

All three are completely different plates, but their logic is the same.

Another formula:

Protein + vegetable + carbohydrate + a fresh accompaniment

Chicken + roasted vegetables + bulgur + cacık.

Fish + potatoes + green salad + lemon.

Köfte + rice pilaf + charred vegetables + yoghurt.

Once you start thinking this way, you don't have to look for a new recipe every evening.

Leftovers don't have to be the same dish the next day

This is one of the topics I especially love.

You don't have to put yesterday's leftover rice pilaf back on the plate the same way.

When you turn it in a pan with a little egg, spring onion and vegetables, it can become a completely different meal.

If there are roasted vegetables left over, you can mix them with yoghurt the next day and make a meze.

You can bake leftover bread with olive oil and spices and put it over a salad or soup.

Tomatoes that are starting to go soft can be cooked slowly for a long time and turned into a sauce.

The chicken you made the day before can become a completely different meal the next day with lots of greens, a yoghurt-based sauce and lavash.

I think creativity in the kitchen begins partly here.

Looking at what's left not as a "leftover," but as a ready ingredient.

Whatever is best at the market sometimes decides the menu

This has been one of the loveliest effects living in Kaş has had on my kitchen.

When you go to the market, planning everything in advance sometimes feels pointless.

You see wonderful tomatoes.

Fresh herbs have appeared.

That week the courgettes are lovely.

Another time it's borlotti beans or aubergines.

At times like these, instead of fitting the recipe to the ingredient, I prefer to change the dish according to the ingredient.

Because sometimes the only thing a good tomato needs is olive oil, a little salt and maybe a bit of cheese.

Not covering up a good ingredient too much is also part of cooking.

The "there's nothing at home" meal

If one evening you really don't know what to make, try this method.

Open the fridge and take out the ingredients without thinking about a dish.

Choose a vegetable.

Find a protein: egg, yoghurt, cheese, lentils, chickpeas, chicken… whatever there is.

Add a carbohydrate: bread, rice, bulgur, pasta or potatoes.

Then find something to bring the meal together: lemon, yoghurt, olive oil, garlic, fresh herbs or a nice spice.

Finally, add a bit of texture: walnuts, almonds, sesame, toasted bread or roasted chickpeas.

You don't have to use all of them.

But once you start thinking this way, you'll notice that on many days when you said "there's no food at home," there were actually a few different options.

Recipes guide you, but you learn the kitchen yourself

I love recipes. I use them too.

Especially when trying something I've never made before, a recipe is a very good starting point.

But I don't think the purpose of a recipe is to make us dependent on it.

After a while, you begin to know that you can put aubergine in place of the courgette in the recipe, that if there's no parsley you can use another herb, that you can use almonds instead of walnuts.

And most importantly, you learn to taste.

A little more lemon.

A little more salt.

Maybe a little olive oil.

Maybe nothing at all.

That's when cooking stops being about following a recipe and turns into really cooking.

For me, freedom in the kitchen is a bit like this too.

Looking at whatever I have, following the season, throwing away as little as possible, and being able to create a beautiful table from a few simple ingredients.

Because sometimes the best meals aren't the ones we planned in advance, but the ones we make with what we have in the moment.

Cooking Without a Recipe: How to Make a Good Meal with Whatever You Have at Home