My Karatay Days and Purslane with Olive Oil

Dear Sinem Karatay continues to share her diet and experiences…

As I mentioned in my previous article, I have been eating according to the Karatay Diet for 10 days. I am doing this diet not just to lose weight (yes, losing weight is a plus), but to have a healthy body. It was not very difficult to eat this way, since it is not a very strict diet and there are certain principles to be followed. However, it is important to cook the dishes as described by Canan Karatay in the book. For example, tomato paste is included in the group of foods that should not be consumed because they are processed. Therefore, tomato paste should not be used in meals. It is important to adapt the food prepared according to this rule.

As it is known, summer has come, we can find plenty of fresh vegetables for all kinds of olive oil lovers. In fact, olive oil dishes, one of the most delicious dishes of Mediterranean cuisine, are also indispensable in Turkish cuisine. Olive oil dishes are also very suitable for the Karatay Diet when they are cooked correctly and made with real olive oil. Olive oil dishes, which can be consumed at every meal, are satisfying enough with a bowl of yoghurt for lunch after a hearty Karatay breakfast. In fact, I think a perfect dinner menu can be easily made with a plate of olive oil, a bowl of yogurt and a piece of grilled chicken breast. Since olive oil is usually not finished in one meal, it can be cooked during the day, consumed at dinner, and eaten at lunch the next day. (At least that's what I do).

Nowadays, there are plenty of fresh purslane everywhere. After making a salad from the leaves of the purslane that I bought last week, I couldn't bear to throw the stems away. Purslane stalks with tiny young leaves on them are very delicious. After talking to my mother as well, I decided to cook Purslane with Olive Oil from these stalks. Of course, an Olive Oil Purslane suitable for the Karatay Diet.

If I need to talk about Purslane with Olive Oil and the Karatay rules that apply to all olive oil dishes, which I will give below, first of all, it can be cooked with real olive oil and only real olive oil. Refined oils such as sunflower or corn oil, or olive oil cooked with riviera olive oil are extremely unhealthy because the oils in them, let alone contain essential fatty acids for the body, turn into trans fat when heated. That's why it's very important for those with olive oil to be cooked in real extra virgin olive oil. Especially if natural pressed stone extra virgin olive oil can be found. Many brands now produce olive oils such as Mediterranean Extra Virgin, Natural Extra Virgin, Natural Extra Virgin, Stone Pressed. Therefore, it is not difficult to find real olive oil. The second important point is that tomato paste should not be put into olive oil dishes. In fact, only in certain regions of Anatolia, tomato paste is added to olive oil dishes, but because it is a processed food, it is among the banned ones in the Karatay Diet. Instead, you can add lots of fresh tomatoes to olive oil dishes, believe me, it is much more delicious than tomato paste. Although I did not prefer it before, many people put 1 cube of sugar in it when cooking with olive oil. Our third important point is about this, sugar is the fierce enemy of the Karatay Diet, you should not put sugar in your meals. But don't worry, when you fry the onions in olive oil in a very little pan, you already get a taste that you don't need to add sugar to the dish. Finally, cooking all dishes at low heat for a long time makes them much healthier. While cooking olive oil dishes, the most important trick of a very delicious and healthy olive oil dish is to first turn the olive oil and onion very slightly, then add the vegetables and tomatoes, or if you want, a little garlic, set the bottom to the lowest setting and cook it slowly with the lid closed. . You don't need to add extra water if your tomatoes are juicy enough when you cook them with tomatoes in any olive oil.

Let's get to the Purslane with Olive Oil, which I prepared from purslane stalks: (the photo was taken just before the lid was closed during cooking)

1 bunch of purslane (you can use the leaves in a salad like I did and cook the stems with olive oil)
1 medium onions
3-4 medium garden tomatoes (can be found in the market-markets these days, if not, bunch tomatoes)
2-3 cloves of garlic
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
Very little rock salt (just turn the grinder 1-2 times)
Black pepper (tastier if you grind it yourself)

If you are going to use only the stems as I did, you need to separate the stems and leaves after washing the purslane. You can use the leaves in salads. One trick is, if you put the greens you have washed and extracted in ziplock bags and close the mouth completely, all your green vegetables will stay fresh longer. I use Ziploc's 2-zip freezer bags that my cousin brought from America, but similar bags of different brands are sold in Turkey. If the bag you bought is thick enough, you can use a bag more than once, just wash it and wait for it to dry. Anyway, let's get back to our recipe, we chop the purslane that we wash in a way that is not very small. In the meantime, I cooked a large covered Teflon vodka, but we turn the extra virgin olive oil and the chopped onions for 1-2 minutes in a flat pan with a lid. We cook the old-fashioned onions not until they turn pink, but until they are cooked without changing color, come to the mouth. Then we put the purslane on them and turn them upside down 1-2 times. We add the tomatoes that we peel and cut into small pieces and the garlic that we cut into small pieces if you want to the pan and turn it upside down a few more times. After adding salt and pepper on it, we close the lid and let it cook. Tomatoes are completely watered as they are cooked slowly over low heat. Therefore, there is no need to add water. Of course, if you see that all the water is gone during cooking, you can add a little water. It should also be said that you can increase the tomato and onion according to the size of the purslane bunch you will cook. It is enough to put the cooked olive oil in a storage container and wait for it to cool, then put it in the closet :)

Can be eaten with Purslane with Olive Oil in 1 meal (you can diversify it even more)

– 1 bowl of yogurt and 1 piece of grilled chicken or meat
– 1 bowl of tzatziki and a meat dish
– 1 bowl of yoghurt and a green salad with chicken-meat-cheese added

Text and Photograph: Sinem Çomarlı