Yayla Çorbasi 

Last year I caught covid and it hit me pretty hard. I was bedridden, super tired and weak. I lost my appetite for everything but bland bread. I layed d alone rewatching Gilmore Girls, distracting myself from this miserable sickness, nibbling on a dry piece of bread while my grandmother was cooking upstairs trying to think of recipes that will bring my appetite back. 

Every year my grandparents on my mom’s side visit us all the way from Turkey for one month. My grandpa, Dede in Turkish, would tell me stories and play games with me while my grandma, Anneanne in Turkish, cooked for us. She is super picky so we rarely ate out when they visited. Thankfully we all loved the food she cooked. 

  One of my favorite soups she ever made was  yogurt soup. My favoritism shortly disappeared when I was 10 years old. My grandma, who cannot understand english, used  vanilla yogurt instead not plain yogurt. My dramatic self decided that I would not eat it ever again. 

It was a very simple recipe. She would always pull out a stock pot adding thoroughly cleaned rice, flour, plain yogurt, vegetable oil, mint and oregano without any heat. The most memorable ingredients were the oregano and the mint because it filled the whole house with its earthy and spicy aromas.

My mom came down in a mask and offered me freshly made yogurt soup. The fragrant smell of mint and oregano swept my face as she opened my door. In the back of my mind I didn’t want to eat it because I was scarred from the vanilla incident but I couldn’t resist. I accepted the soup and the extra bread my mom brought for me to dip it in.  

Chunks of bread are really good in this soup because it soaks up the flavor. In Turkey, bread was always served with your meal to dip or soak juices or soups in. After all the ingredients are mixed, place it in the refrigerator or wait 20 minutes before finishing the recipe. When the mixture is done resting, add the water half a cup every time, stirring on medium heat and keep adding the water bringing it to a boil. This step really accentuates the smell. 

In bed I was careful not to spill the soup all over me but I greedily ate the whole thing in less than 5 minutes. It tasted like my childhood.  I immediately asked my mom for another bowl and I knew that upstairs my grandma was so happy I was back to loving this soup.

When it came to the final seasoning, my grandmother was very generous with the pepper but I always had to add extra salt when she served it. She never really liked salt all that much. After adding the salt and pepper, keep stirring and cooking on medium heat while it is still boiling until the rice is fully cooked. The rice to soup ratio was usually uneven but when I had it sick it was just perfect. 

Finish the soup off by adding the butter. For the rest of my recovery I drank so much soup and I expanded my palette thanks to my reconnection. That was the soup that brought my appetite back.