🥛 Boza
Boza is a thick, lightly fermented grain drink with a sweet-and-sour taste and a texture close to a thin pudding. It is made by cooking cracked grain to a porridge, sieving it and letting it ferment with yeast and sugar. In Turkey it is a winter drink, served cold with a dusting of cinnamon and a handful of roasted chickpeas on top.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 200 g fine bulgur
- 2 litres water
- 200 g sugar
- 1 tsp dried yeast
- Ground cinnamon and roasted chickpeas to serve
Method
- Simmer the bulgur in the water, stirring often, for 40 minutes until very soft.
- Blend until smooth and press through a fine sieve; add water if needed to get about 1.5 litres of thick liquid.
- Let it cool to lukewarm, stir in the sugar and yeast, cover and leave at room temperature for 24–36 hours until pleasantly tangy.
- Chill well and serve in glasses with cinnamon and a few roasted chickpeas.
How to make it lighter
- Most of the calories come from sugar: cutting it by a third still gives a pleasant sweet-sour taste.
- Serve a small glass (150 ml) as a dessert rather than a large one as a drink.
- Cinnamon adds flavour without calories; keep the chickpea topping to a spoonful.
History
Fermented grain drinks of this kind have been made across Anatolia, the Balkans and Central Asia for many centuries, and boza was widely sold by street vendors in Ottoman cities. Recipes vary by region — millet, maize or wheat are all used. Today boza is still made by specialist shops in Istanbul and is popular in Bulgaria, Albania and North Macedonia.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →