Etli nohut is a homely Turkish stew of chickpeas and lamb simmered in a light tomato-and-onion sauce until the chickpeas turn creamy and the meat falls apart. The name says exactly what it is — etli (with meat) nohut (chickpeas). It is weekday family food across Anatolia, almost always ladled over plain rice pilaf so the sauce soaks in. This is the stew, not the chickpea rice dish nohutlu pilav, in which chickpeas are cooked into the rice itself.
Etli nohut is everyday Anatolian home cooking with no single documented origin; chickpeas and lamb are both ancient staples of the region, and stewing them together in onion and tomato is a long-standing domestic habit rather than a datable recipe. It belongs to the large family of Turkish etli (meat-and-legume) stews — alongside kuru fasulye with white beans and etli bezelye with green peas — that form the backbone of weekday cooking.
Tender chickpeas with a buttery, slightly mealy interior, soft lamb that shreds at the spoon, and a savory red broth carrying onion sweetness and a gentle tomato tang. Mild and warming rather than spicy. Eaten over rice with pickles on the side. Chalky, hard-centered chickpeas mean they were undercooked or unsoaked; the good version yields completely to the tongue.
Dried chickpeas need an overnight soak and a long, gentle simmer; a pinch of baking soda in the soak water raises pH and helps the pectin in the cell walls break down so they soften evenly. Salt is best added late, since early salt can toughen the skins before the interior cooks through. Browning the lamb and blooming the tomato paste in fat first builds a Maillard-deepened base the long simmer then carries through the whole pot. The starch the chickpeas shed slightly thickens the broth on its own.
Variations
Plainest versions are tomato-light, almost white; southeastern cooks lean redder with more tomato and pul biber. A meatless chickpea stew, nohut yemeği, follows the same method without lamb. Some homes finish with a squeeze of lemon. Always paired with rice — nohutlu pilav, where chickpeas go into the rice itself, is a separate dish entirely.
On the Palate
Where Etli Nohut sits in the Turkish flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
6 steps · 20 min
- 15 min
Soak dried chickpeas overnight; drain. (Canned chickpeas can be used to skip the long simmer.)
- 212 min
Brown diced lamb in oil, then add chopped onion and cook until soft and golden.
- 33 min
Stir in tomato paste and let it bloom in the fat for a minute, then add chopped tomato and pul biber.
Watch outBloom the tomato paste in the hot fat for a full minute until it darkens and smells sweet — raw paste leaves a tinny, sour edge.
- 45 min
Add the drained chickpeas and enough hot water to cover; bring to a simmer.
- 5120 min
Simmer gently, partly covered, until chickpeas are creamy-soft and lamb is tender, about 1.5 to 2 hours, salting near the end.
Watch outSalt near the end — early salt toughens the skins before the middle softens; the chickpeas are done when they crush creamy-soft.
- 65 min
Adjust the broth to a loose gravy and serve over rice pilaf with pickles.
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