Iğdır bozbaş yemeği
Lamb and chickpea stew
Bone-in meat simmered with onion, tomato paste, lepe chickpeas, turmeric and potatoes, served in a metal mug with lavash torn into the broth.
Eastern Anatolia
Iğdır
In Iğdır, what ties several dishes together is the yellow of sarıkök, or turmeric. In bozbaş, bone-in meat cooks with lepe chickpeas, sarıkök and potatoes; it arrives in a metal mug called a maşrapa, with lavash torn into the broth. Taş köfte is a köfte of meat pounded with a wooden mallet and brought together with lepe, rice and sarıkök, holding a sour plum known as alça inside. Lepeli ekşili pilav, rice with meat colored with turmeric, comes to the table mainly during Ramadan, holidays and special days. At the sweet end waits a surprising jam: patlıcan reçeli, made from small local eggplants called kara badımcan, boiled in syrup with lemon. Fruit and flowers belong to this table too. Iğdır apricots, including the oval Şalak variety, are picked from the last week of June, while red roses are gathered in May and turned into jam. Once you have followed the yellow thread of sarıkök, keep getting to know Iğdır through its May rose jam and its apricots from the end of June.
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Apricot orchards beneath Mount Ağrı
The Aras plain, apricot orchards and Mount Ağrı on the horizon.
Signature dishes
A lamb-and-chickpea stew offers a starting point, followed by fruit and grain preparations.
Iğdır taş köfte yemeği
Plum-filled meatballs
Meat pounded with a wooden mallet, kneaded with lepe, parsley, rice and turmeric, filled with a sour plum and simmered with potatoes.
Iğdır omaç aşı çorbası
Mung bean and noodle soup
Mung beans, evelik greens, bulgur, rice, sour plum and noodles cooked together, mostly in winter.
Lepeli ekşili pilav
Turmeric rice with meat
Rice with meat, colored with turmeric, made mainly during Ramadan, holidays and special days.
Bağa yaprağı sarması
Stuffed bağa leaves
Boiled bağa leaves wrapped around rice cooked with tomato, pepper paste, onion, garlic, parsley and spices, eaten with lemon.
Katlet
Oblong meatballs
Meat mixed with finely chopped potato, onion and spices and shaped into oblong meatballs.
Hörre
Flour and butter soup
Flour, fat and water cooked to a soup-like consistency and served with melted butter on top.
Iğdır patlıcan reçeli
Eggplant jam
Small local eggplants soaked in lime water, peeled and boiled in syrup with lemon.
Locally cooked
Recipes from this city are coming soon.
Local ingredients
Iğdır kayısısı
Apricots including the oval Şalak, picked from the last week of June.
Guide not written yetIğdır beyaz üzümü / Miskalı
A white grape grown mainly in the Aralık district, especially around Kadıkışlak.
Guide not written yetKızıl gül
Red roses picked in May and made into jam.
Guide not written yetSarıkök
Turmeric, used in bozbaş, taş köfte and pilaf.
Guide not written yetEvelik
Wild evelik greens, boiled for omaç aşı.
Guide not written yetFood culture
The provincial culture directorate describes instruments including nağara, garmon, clarinet and tütek in local performance. Its account connects parts of the repertoire with Azerbaijani and wider Caucasian musical traditions. Music makes exchange audible. The use of shared instruments and forms is more informative than a claim that cultural traditions follow provincial borders exactly. The guide does not adopt speculative instrument-origin stories from the source.
Turmeric gold
Sarıkök colors bozbaş, taş köfte and the festive lepeli pilaf.
Fruit of the plain
Apricots, white grapes and red roses from the Aras plain go into jams, alongside one made from eggplant.
What to bring home
- Eggplant jam
- Dried apricots and apricot pestil
- Red-rose jam
- Sarıkök (turmeric)
- Hand-made Iğdır dolls
History & landscape
Two great features stand out in Iğdır’s geography: the Aras River and Mount Ağrı, also known as Ararat. The mountain rises on the border between the provinces of Ağrı and Iğdır. Where the Aras forms the border between Türkiye and Armenia, Karakale stands on steep cliffs. The Seljuks built it in the late 12th century. Its position gave it special strategic importance, at a point where the river could be crossed and on the road leading to the Iğdır plain.
The plain’s past can also be traced through its old cemeteries. The ram-headed gravestones found across the Iğdır plain are the last remains of the Kara Koyunlu period. They were erected on the graves of those who were brave and heroic, and of those who died young. The Harmandöven Ejder Caravanserai was built in the 13th century, during the Seljuk period, by Şerafettin Ejder Bey, Amir of the Surmari. It stands on the Batumi–Tabriz caravan route, one of the side roads of the Silk Road. At the Ahura Ruins, Urartian remains are found alongside traces of the Persian, Roman and Eastern Roman periods.
