Kumpir craze: How turkey's street potato stole the spotlight

Kumpir is another name for a baked potato whose flesh is mixed with meat or vegetables. Currently, this simple and delicious dish is extremely popular in Turkey, but it originally comes from the former countries of Yugoslavia. Kumpir is most often prepared with meat – lamb, mutton, or chicken, but it is also available in a vegetarian version. 

How is kumpir served?

In many Turkish bars, you can choose your own toppings. You receive a baked potato filled with hot puree, which you mix with meat and vegetables. The whole dish is topped with cold sauces, similar to kebabs or burgers. 

With a kumpir in a paper bowl, you can head to the park or the coast. It tastes best in the summer outdoors, but nothing is stopping you from preparing this delicious, filling, and vacation-memory-invoking dish at home.

For the dish, choose large, well-shaped potato tubers. In Turkey, one weighs about 500 grams.

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 2 large potatoes,
• 100 grams chorizo sausage or 100 grams tofu,
• 1 onion,
• 2 cloves of garlic,
• 1 red bell pepper,
• 100 grams yellow cheese,
• for the tofu version: olive oil and soy sauce.

Instructions:

1. Scrub the potatoes and cook them in salted water with skins on. Cut them in half or make a slit to scoop out the flesh.
2. For the meat version: Fry sliced chorizo with finely chopped onion, garlic, and bell pepper in a pan.
3. For the vegetarian version: Sauté the onion in olive oil, add sliced garlic, diced bell pepper, and crumbled tofu, pour in soy sauce, and mix.
4. Mix the pan toppings with the potato flesh.
5. Fill the insides of the scooped potato skins with the mixture, sprinkle with grated yellow cheese, and place in an oven preheated to 200 degrees Celsius for about 7-10 minutes.
6. Serve with tomato salsa, horseradish sauce, or garlic sauce.