Mast û xiyar — Cucumber Yogurt with Mint

⏱ 10 min · 🍽️ 4 Servings · 🧂 7 Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 1 piece cucumber (about 400 g)
  • 1–2 clove garlic
  • 500 g yogurt (see recipe Mast — homemade yogurt; or shop-bought natural yogurt, 3.5 % fat)
  • 0.5 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp dried mint
  • 100 ml cold water (optional, for the thinner version)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

  1. Wash the cucumber, cut off the ends and, if you like, peel off the skin in stripes. Quarter the cucumber lengthwise and cut it into small cubes of about 5 mm; if you prefer it finer, coarsely grate it and lightly squeeze out the juice so that the yogurt does not become watery.
  2. Peel the garlic and grate or chop it very finely.
  3. Stir the yogurt in a bowl until smooth, stir in the garlic and salt and crumble the mint over it between your fingers, keeping back a pinch for the top. Fold in the cucumber; for the thinner version, gradually stir in the cold water.
  4. Cover the cucumber yogurt and leave it in the fridge so that the garlic and mint can meld.
  5. Stir once more, season with salt and spoon into a bowl. Drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with the reserved mint and serve cold.
  6. Tip: In summer, thinned with a little more cold water and a few ice cubes, it becomes a cool soup to eat with a spoon. Covered in the fridge, the cucumber yogurt keeps for a day; because the cucumber draws out water, give it a quick stir before serving.
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Mast û xiyar — Cucumber Yogurt with Mint – Recipe and image AI-created, editorially reviewed
📖 Culinse

🤖 Recipe and image AI-created, editorially reviewed · About our AI transparency

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Mast û xiyar — Cucumber Yogurt with Mint

A Kurdish classic served in all Kurdish regions: Mast û xiyar is cool yogurt with crunchy diced cucumber, a little garlic and dried mint, eaten with Kutilk, Biryanî, Dolma, rice and bulgur. In Turkish it is called Cacık, in Iraq Jajik and in Persian Mast-o-Khiar. It tastes fresh, mildly tangy and aromatic with mint, and a thread of olive oil on top rounds it off; stirred with a little cold water, it becomes runnier and can be eaten with a spoon.

⏱

Cook time

10 min

🍽️

Servings

4

🧂

Ingredients

7

View Original ↗

Nutrition

per serving

121 kcal

Calories

5 g

Protein

7 g

Fat

8 g

Carbs

Ingredients

For 4 servings

Estimated cost~€2.20 · ~€0.55/serving

Instructions

  1. 1

    Wash the cucumber, cut off the ends and, if you like, peel off the skin in stripes. Quarter the cucumber lengthwise and cut it into small cubes of about 5 mm; if you prefer it finer, coarsely grate it and lightly squeeze out the juice so that the yogurt does not become watery.

  2. 2

    Peel the garlic and grate or chop it very finely.

  3. 3

    Stir the yogurt in a bowl until smooth, stir in the garlic and salt and crumble the mint over it between your fingers, keeping back a pinch for the top. Fold in the cucumber; for the thinner version, gradually stir in the cold water.

  4. 4

    Cover the cucumber yogurt and leave it in the fridge so that the garlic and mint can meld.

  5. 5

    Stir once more, season with salt and spoon into a bowl. Drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with the reserved mint and serve cold.

  6. 6

    Tip: In summer, thinned with a little more cold water and a few ice cubes, it becomes a cool soup to eat with a spoon. Covered in the fridge, the cucumber yogurt keeps for a day; because the cucumber draws out water, give it a quick stir before serving.

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