Yogurt Around the World

Yogurt is rarely just yogurt. Almost everywhere it is eaten, it has become part of the local table, as a sauce, a soup, a drink or a dessert. Travel through the world's kitchens and you meet the same ingredient doing very different jobs. This tour visits a few of them. It is a sampler, not a complete map: every region has more dishes than can fit on one page.

Turkey

Turkish cooking uses yogurt generously. It crowns manti, the small filled dumplings, with garlic and a spiced butter. It cools a plate of grilled meat as cacik, a loose mixture with cucumber and herbs. It thickens warm soups such as yayla soup, and it is whisked with water and salt into the drink ayran. Yogurt appears at breakfast and dinner, hot and cold.

Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean

Thick, strained yogurt is a staple across the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans. In Greece, tzatziki pairs it with cucumber, garlic and olive oil to dress grilled food and fill pita. Thick yogurt also turns up at breakfast with honey and nuts, and in many savory dishes in neighboring countries.

Iran, the Caucasus and Central Asia

In Iran, mast-o-khiar combines yogurt with cucumber and herbs, sometimes with raisins or walnuts, and doogh is a tangy drink of yogurt and water, often served cold with food. Across the Caucasus and Central Asia, yogurt and its strained and dried relatives are everyday foods, with many local names.

India and South Asia

In India, raita cools spicy dishes, with cucumber, onion, mint or fruit stirred into plain yogurt. Lassi blends yogurt into a chilled drink, sweet or salty. Dahi, the yogurt set at home, appears at many meals, and yogurt is also the base of cooked dishes such as kadhi.

Cucumber and yogurt show up in Turkish cacik, Greek tzatziki, Persian mast-o-khiar and Indian raita. Four kitchens, one cooling idea.

The Middle East

Labneh is yogurt strained until it becomes soft and spreadable. It is served with olive oil and za'atar or herbs, often with warm flatbread, and it features in mezze tables across the region. Because it is thick, it also works as a base for dips and as a filling.

What they share

Look across these dishes and a few themes repeat. Yogurt cools heat, whether from chili or from grilled meat. It adds a clean tang that lifts rich food. It is thickened or thinned to suit the job: strained for dips, whisked with water for drinks. And it is usually seasoned simply, with salt, herbs, garlic, spices or honey. These are not rules, only patterns you can use at home.

Taste the tour at home

You do not need to travel to taste the range. In the Recipes tab you will find cacik, haydari, tzatziki, raita and labneh, along with manti and yayla soup. Make two of the cucumber dishes on the same day and compare them. You will taste how a different herb, a different amount of garlic or a different finishing oil gives each its own accent.