🍚 İç pilav
İç pilav is a Turkish spiced rice cooked with onion, small cubes of liver, toasted pine nuts and dried currants. It is savoury, slightly sweet and fragrant with allspice and cinnamon, finished with fresh herbs. It is served as a festive side dish and is also the traditional stuffing for roast birds and mussels.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 300 g rice
- 150 g lamb or chicken liver, finely diced
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 25 g pine nuts
- 25 g dried currants, soaked
- 1 tsp allspice, ½ tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil, salt, pepper
- 500 ml hot water, fresh dill and parsley
Method
- Rinse the rice and soak it in warm salted water for 20 minutes; drain.
- Toast the pine nuts in the oil until golden, add the onion and cook until soft.
- Add the liver and fry briefly until it changes colour.
- Stir in the rice, spices, currants, salt and pepper, then pour in the hot water.
- Cover and cook on low heat for about 15 minutes, then rest for 10 minutes with a towel under the lid. Fold in the herbs.
How to make it lighter
- Use 1 tbsp of oil instead of 2; 1 tbsp ≈ 120 kcal.
- Halve the pine nuts and currants and add more herbs.
- Serve it as a side next to grilled vegetables rather than as a main.
History
İç pilav is a classic of Istanbul and Ottoman-style cooking, where pilafs with pine nuts and currants are typical of festive tables. Its name means “inner pilaf”, because it is also used as a stuffing.
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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 →