Nut & Peanut Allergy in Turkey

Travelers allergic to peanuts do not usually have too difficult a time in Turkey because peanut is not a common ingredient in Turkish cuisine. Tree nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, pistachios, pine nuts, etc.) are more common, but the dishes in which they appear are usually readily identifiable.

Peanuts (yer fistigi, YEHR fuhs-tuh-uh) are not actually nuts, they're legumes, pulses.

Peanuts are eaten in Turkey, but almost always as a snack; and there are so many other good natural snacks in Turkey such as hazelnuts, walnuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, dried fruits, chick peas, etc. that peanuts are not often preferred. So they're uncommon, and usually not found in Turkish cooking at all. (My daughter went to Turkey during her peanut-allergy-threat period, and I was rarely concerned in restaurants.)

Cooking oil is most often sunflower or olive oil, both of which Turkey produces in abundance. This doesn't mean there can't be peanut oil, but it would not be as common as peanut oil is in, say, the USA.

Tree nuts are used in a few restaurant dishes, but except for pine nuts, (çam fistigi) they are uncommon. You find them mostly as snacks, and in some desserts (sweets). Innovative chefs intent on breaking with tradition may use nuts in dishes which traditionally do not include them.

Walnuts (ceviz, jeh-VEEZ) are used in Çerkez Tavugu (chehr-KEHZ tah-voo-oo, "Circassian Chicken"), chicken with a walnut sauce, and in baklava.

Turkey produces half the world's supply of hazelnuts (filberts, findik), so they may appear in some innovative dishes, or in restaurants in the Black Sea region, where the nuts grow.

Pistachios (Sam fistigi, SHAHM fuss-tuh-uh) grow in the southeast. They, too, are mostly a snack, or used in desserts (such as baklava and burma kadayif)and confections (such as lokum: Turkish delight), but may be used in some stuffed vegetables, pilavs and even kebaps.

Almonds (badem, bah-DEHM) are often eaten fresh, in season, as a snack, served on a block of ice to cool them. You'll also find them dried, again as a snack, rarely in restaurant dishes.

Pecans (pekan) and cashews are not native to Turkey, and are not normally used in Turkish cuisine.

In general, simple restaurants making the common, traditional Turkish dishes may use fewer or no nuts. Innovative, more expensive restaurants may use more.

The Turkish phrase for "I'm allergic to nuts" would be "Çekirdeklere alerjim var" (CHEK-ehr-DEK-lehr-EH ah-lehr-ZHEEM vahr), but the word used here is "seeds." Unfortunately, Turkish doesn't have a single word designating tree nuts, as English does. If your allergy is to a single nut, you'd say:

[Name of nut] alerjim var.

For example, Yer fistigi alerjim var (YEHR fuhs-tuh-uh ah-lehr-ZHEEM vahr) for peanuts.

If your allergy is not mentioned here and you don't know the word for it, contact me and I'll find it for you.

Food Allergy Awareness & Medical Assistance in Turkey

Food Allergies Homepage

Vegetarian Food in Turkey

All About Turkish Cuisine

Travel Details

Dried fruits (kuru yemis) and nuts/seeds (çekirdek) are popular snacks in Turkey.