Turkish Salgam

Ingredients: Water, violet carrot, turnip, salt, pounded wheat or bulgur flour.

Salgam (pronounced shal-gum) is a traditional Turkish drink made from dark turnips and violet carrots and shira. It's served cold with pickles and available in Hot and Mild formulas. It's a very traditional drink in Adana province and also in the GAP and South Eastern Anatolia, especially served with Kebab dishes. Some people drink it with Raki saying that it removes or softens the effects of alcohol. It has a dark red or purple color and a very strong soar taste.

Because it's a juice full of minerals and vitamin C, it's one of the most preferred drinks in the winter time for colder climates. It also contains Thiamin (B1) and Riboflavin (B2) vitamins, and is rich in Calcium, Potassium and iron.

Preparation:
it's made of the essence of violet carrots. First, bulgur rice flour is left for lactic acid fermentation for a week until it gets very soar, than put in wooden barrels made of mulberry tree. After well cleaning and boiling violet carrots, it's put in these barrels together with dark turnips (Brassica Napus in Latin). After another week in these barrels salt is added. When Salgam gets mature in these barrels like a wine does, at the end the fermentation period it's filtered and ready to drink. For people who prefer it hot and spicy, hot sauce obtained from red paprika is added in as well. The total processing time to prepare it is between 2-4 weeks.