Çatal çorba is one of the most filling soups on the winter tables of Amasya. Green lentils and yarma (cracked wheat) meet in the same pot, fried onion and minced meat are added over them, and hot butter goes on last; with its thick, grainy consistency the soup comes closer to a meal than a starter, and with bread alongside it can take the place of a main course. The name suggests a fork (çatal), yet the soup is neither cooked nor eaten with one. This contradiction has become one of the most talked-about things about the dish in Amasya, and the origin of the name remains unknown today. The soup itself, by contrast, is well documented: it appeared as the second recipe in the soup section of the Amasya Mutfağı (Amasya Cuisine) book published in 2006, and in the autumn of 2025 it was registered as a geographical indication under the name "Amasya Çatal Çorbası".

What Çatal Çorba Is

In the Amasya Mutfağı book and in the traditional cuisine record of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, çatal çorba is described as a soup made with green lentils, yarma, onion, minced meat, butter, salt, chili flakes and mint. A pulse and a grain form its backbone. Green lentils, unlike red ones, largely keep their shape when cooked. Yarma is wheat that has been pounded into coarse pieces; recipes also call it ashura wheat or cracked wheat, and it thickens the soup as it cooks while leaving each grain pleasantly chewy. The meeting of these two ingredients is the main difference between this soup and the classic lentil soup. Lentil soup is smooth and fluid, whereas çatal çorba is grainy, full and heavy on the spoon.

The geographical indication certificate defines the character of the soup through the same ingredients. According to the certificate, Amasya Çatal Çorbası is a soup made by combining yarma, green lentils, minced meat, onion and various spices, and it is usually served with pickles and spring onions. The registration text specifically notes that adding minced meat to the green lentils and yarma, both widely produced in the region, gives the soup its filling quality. By this definition the foundation of çatal çorba is grain and pulse grown in the region, while meat is an enrichment added to that foundation.

Although the soup is associated with Amasya, it does not belong to the city alone. Similar soups are made in the kitchens of neighbouring provinces such as Tokat, Kırşehir and Çorum; its closest relative is the soup known in Çorum as çatal aşı, or written as one word, çatalaşı. In Amasya, however, the soup has acquired a distinct identity of its own. Collections of regional dishes list the city's soups as çatal çorba, sakala çarpan, toyga soup, cilbir, helle soup, kesme ibik soup and yarma soup; çatal çorba stands first on this list and is known as one of the soups most often cooked in the region.

The Recorded Recipes

The Recipe in the Amasya Mutfağı Book

One of the recorded recipes for çatal çorba is found in Amasya Mutfağı, a bilingual Turkish-English book printed in October 2006 as the 42nd title in the publication series of the Amasya Governorship, with a second edition in February 2010. Issued with a foreword by the governor of the day, M. Celalettin Lekesiz, the book was prepared jointly by the food and beverage teachers of the Amasya Anatolian Girls' Vocational High School, master instructors, cooks and housewives who shared their recipes. This mix suggests that the book's recipes are a compilation in which the orderly measures of a cookery school meet the practice handed down from generation to generation in private homes. The soup section of the book contains nine recipes, and çatal çorba comes second, immediately after toyka soup.

The recipe in the book is notable for its simplicity. It calls for one and a half tea glasses of green lentils, two tea glasses of yarma, seven water glasses of water, one medium onion, 100 grams of minced meat and two tablespoons of butter; salt, chili flakes and mint are also on the ingredient list. When the lentils begin to soften in the water, the yarma is added and boiled with them. In a separate pan the oil, onion and minced meat are fried; this mixture is added over the lentils and yarma, the soup is boiled for about five minutes with more water, and the pot is taken off the heat. At serving time mint and chili flakes fried in butter are poured over the soup. In the English version of the recipe the dish is called "Çatal Soup", that is, the name is kept without translation; this is a small detail showing that the meaning of the name was not explained by the book's compilers either.

The Recipe in the Geographical Indication Registration

The production method in the registration certificate redefines the book's recipe with more detailed measures and a few different steps. For six portions it uses 200-230 grams of cracked wheat, 100-120 grams of green lentils, 50-60 grams of minced beef, 90-110 grams of dry onion, two to two and a half litres of water, 20-30 millilitres of sunflower oil, 50-60 grams of butter, and five to ten grams each of salt and ground red pepper. What stands out in these measures is that the yarma is nearly twice the amount of lentils; in the book's recipe, too, there is somewhat more yarma than lentils, so it can be said that wheat forms the real body of the soup.

The first step of the method is a soaking that does not appear in the book: the green lentils and the yarma are left in cold water in separate bowls for two to three hours. The yarma is then cooked over low heat for twenty minutes with about half a litre of water. The lentils are cooked separately with water over medium heat for about twenty minutes, and once they begin to soften the pre-boiled yarma is added and the two are boiled together for five more minutes. In another pan the onion and minced meat are fried in sunflower oil; this mixture is added to the pot with 200-300 millilitres of boiled water and cooked for another five minutes. Finally, hot butter and spices are poured over the top. According to the certificate the soup is served hot in a bowl, with pickles and spring onions alongside.

Comparing the two recipes shows that the main framework stays the same. The differences lie in the details: the registration text requires soaking and boiling the two grains separately, uses sunflower oil rather than butter for frying, reserves butter for the final touch only, and speaks of spices in general rather than mint. In the book, by contrast, lentils and yarma are boiled in the same water and mint is named explicitly. These small divergences show how the same soup can be written in two different languages, that of a home kitchen and that of a standard production definition.

Household Variations

The details of the recipe differ slightly from source to source, and these differences also reflect how the soup is adapted from one household to another. In one version a tea glass each of lentils and yarma is used, the water is increased to six glasses, the onion is fried in butter until it turns pink, and then tomato paste, hot pepper paste, black pepper and dried mint are added. In this sauce-based method there is no minced meat and the soup is meatless. In a recipe that requires the yarma to be boiled in advance, the lentils are simmered on their own for about half an hour, the yarma is added afterwards, then the onion and tomato paste sauce goes into the pot and the soup is boiled for a few more minutes before the heat is turned off. A cook who spoke to the local press in 2021 likewise described making the soup with green lentils, yarma, onion, minced meat, fat, water, tomato paste and mint; so tomato paste, although absent from the recorded recipes, is common in everyday cooking. Because the soup can be made with or without meat as one wishes, it suits every budget. With minced meat the soup is heavier and more satisfying; without it, it takes on a lighter character.

Other versions are also known in the region. Some sources write that çatal çorba contains noodles (erişte) or cut pasta and chickpeas alongside the lentils and yarma, and others that it is thickened with yoghurt; a variation in which green lentils are cooked with orzo and diluted yoghurt is added is also in circulation. Which of these recipes is old and which came later has not been established by documents. The recipe of lentils, yarma and minced meat is the most reliable reference, since it appears both in the 2006 book and in the 2025 registration. It is also possible that the versions with noodles and yoghurt have been confused with Amasya's sakala çarpan soup, made with lentils and noodles, or with its yoghurt-based cut dough soup; but this is only a possibility, and the sources offer no such explanation.

Method of Cooking

On the order of cooking and the timing, the recipes are close to one another. The lentils are first picked over and washed, put on the stove in cold water and boiled over medium heat. Because yarma is a hard grain, most recipes soak or boil it in advance, while in some it goes into the pot after the lentils have begun to soften. The onion is finely chopped or grated and fried in fat until pink; in versions with tomato paste the paste is fried together with the onion, and only then are the spices added. The frying is done in a separate pan, and only the grain and the pulse cook in the pot. Preparation takes about ten minutes and cooking twenty to thirty; in recipes where the yarma must be soaked and boiled first the total time reaches an hour, and if soaking as in the registration is included it exceeds two to three hours. Some households use meat or chicken stock instead of water when they have it to hand; this is a common way to strengthen the flavour of the meatless versions. Salt is added with the sauce in the sauce-based versions, or at the very end.

Serving and Its Place at the Table

The indispensable complement to çatal çorba is mint and chili flakes fried in butter. The hot butter forms a red layer on the surface of the soup; the scent of the mint, the softness of the butter and the mild heat of the pepper give a distinct character to the plain taste of lentils and yarma. The soup is generally served hot, with bread alongside. Some recipes suggest serving it once it has cooled to a moderate temperature; the recipe in the Amasya Mutfağı book, however, asks for the mint and chili flakes to be fried in butter and poured over the soup at once. The pickles and spring onions placed beside the soup in the registration certificate balance the heaviness of grain and pulse with a sour, sharp taste; the same accompaniments appear beside its relative in Çorum.

Its nourishing quality is the soup's most prominent feature. Cooking a pulse and a grain together provides both ample sustenance and a long-lasting feeling of fullness; for this reason çatal çorba takes the place of a main course in some households in Amasya. In collections of regional dishes the soup is described as the most nourishing soup of Amasya cuisine, and it is said to be the soup most often prepared by local people on cold winter days. Since together with bread it does the work of a heavy meal, it is mostly eaten at supper. Its economy also matters: green lentils, yarma, onion and tomato paste are found in the pantry of almost every home. For this reason the soup can be counted as the dish of an ordinary weekday evening as well as of a plain table laid for a guest.

The sources differ on the soup's place at ceremonial tables. The geographical indication certificate states that, because it is easy to make and much loved by the public, Amasya Çatal Çorbası is a dish that local people often prepare on special occasions such as weddings. In the introductory section of the Amasya Mutfağı book describing ceremonial dishes, however, the cauldrons boiled at village weddings are listed as keşkek, pilaf, meat and halva; the esteemed guest's table opens with toyka soup, and at the bride's bath bakla dolması, walnut puaça, bat and lokma are eaten. Çatal çorba appears in none of these lists. The difference between the two sources may arise from the book describing the traditional and almost unchanging menus of specific ceremonies, while the registration certificate describes a practice that has become widespread at today's large gatherings; this is an interpretation, and neither text addresses the matter directly.

The Geographical Indication Registration

The official recording of çatal çorba as a product belonging to Amasya came about through a geographical indication application to the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office. The application was filed on 9 January 2023 by the Yeşilırmak Basin Development Union, based in Amasya, and after nearly three years of examination it was registered on 6 November 2025 under number 1788. Protection under Industrial Property Law No. 6769 is counted from the date of application. The product group is "dishes and soups", and the geographical boundary is the whole of Amasya province.

The registration is of the type known as a designation of origin (mahreç işareti). This kind of indication rests on all stages of production taking place within a defined geographical boundary and on the link between the product's reputation and that place. The certificate states that Amasya Çatal Çorbası has a long history in the province, holds an important place in its culinary culture, and for these reasons has a "link of reputation" with the geographical boundary. Where the product name and the emblem of the designation of origin cannot be used on the soup itself or its packaging, they are to be displayed where they can easily be seen in the business; this provision requires a restaurant that cooks the soup by the registered method and serves it under this name to keep the emblem visible on its premises.

The inspection arrangements for the registration are also set out in the certificate. Inspection is carried out under the coordination of the Yeşilırmak Basin Development Union by a board of five representatives, one expert each from Amasya Municipality, the Amasya Provincial Directorate of Agriculture, the Social Sciences Vocational School of Amasya University, the Amasya Tourism Association and the Union itself. The board inspects once a year, and at any time when deemed necessary or upon complaint. The matters inspected are the conformity of the ingredients and the production method with the registration and whether the name and emblem are used correctly. In this way a soup that has varied from house to house for generations is, for the first time, bound to a definition whose measures and method are described and whose observance is inspected. Among the geographical indications registered in the name of Amasya are also quince galle, bean-filled dolma, okra with meat (etli çiçek bamya), Amasya çöreği and Amasya keşkek; the registration of çatal çorba is part of this wider effort to record the city's dishes.

Çatal Aşı in the Neighbouring Kitchen

The closest relative of çatal çorba is the çatalaşı soup of Çorum cuisine. In the brochure of the Çorum Governorship's Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism compiling the region's dishes, this soup appears as the first recipe and is introduced as a traditional dish made in central Çorum and the districts near the centre. Its ingredients are very close to those in Amasya: for a pot serving six, one water glass each of green lentils and cracked yarma, one dry onion, two tablespoons of butter, salt, ground red pepper, mint and six water glasses of water. The washed lentils are cooked thoroughly in cold water, with more water added as it reduces, then the yarma, salt and meat stock are added; finely chopped onion is fried in butter until pink and mint is added to make a sauce, which is poured over the soup at serving time. It is served with pickles, dürüm rolled with çökelek cheese, and spring onions.

The publication of the Central Black Sea Development Agency introducing the region's cuisine likewise writes that women in Çorum often cook this thick soup of lentils and wheat, and that the soup, made with plenty of mint, is served with çökelek dürüm in restaurants serving regional food. When the two recipes are set side by side the difference is clear: Çorum's çatalaşı contains no minced meat, its flavour coming from meat stock and the minted onion sauce, whereas every recorded recipe for çatal çorba in Amasya includes minced meat, and the onion is fried together with it. That the same name and the same framework live on in two neighbouring provinces suggests that the name is less a local invention born in Amasya than an old dish name shared across the region. This is an inference; there is no document showing in which province the soup was first made or from where the name spread.

The Unknown Story of the Name

The name çatal çorba is a subject of curiosity in Amasya too. In a November 2021 report by the İhlas News Agency, Murat Devek, who has cooked the soup for years, said that he did not know why it was so named and that despite his research he had found no known story behind it. Hüseyin Menç, a researcher and writer known for his work on the city's history, likewise stated that they had not come across a gourmet who could explain why the soup was given this name. Fatma Arslan, who runs a restaurant with her husband in the Kocacık Bazaar, also said she had no knowledge of the source of the name, while Asuman Topuz, headwoman of the Gümüşlü neighbourhood, remembered the soup from the days when her mother cooked it and they ate it with pleasure. The fork has no place in either the preparation or the eating of this soup.

Written sources do not fill this gap either. The Amasya Mutfağı book does not explain the name and in its English section leaves it untranslated as "Çatal Soup". The geographical indication certificate likewise confines itself to saying that the soup has a long history in the province and does not touch on the origin of the name. Nor does the name çatal çorba appear in the volumes examined of Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar's Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya). Any explanation offered for the origin of the name is therefore an unsupported assumption. The guess that the name comes from dough pieces shaped like a fork is also inconsistent with the records, since the recipe of green lentils and yarma contains no dough pieces. The form "çatalaşı" in Çorum shows that the name is widespread in the region, but it does not shed light on its meaning. The story of the name remains one of many names in the regional cuisine handed down from generation to generation whose reason has been forgotten.

Within Amasya's Soup Culture

To place çatal çorba properly, one has to look at Amasya's soup tradition. The soup section of the Amasya Mutfağı book contains, in order, toyka soup, çatal çorba, cut dough soup or ibik soup, helle soup, bıdıklı soup, topal börülce soup, sakala çarpan soup, sıkma tarhana soup and whole yarma soup, also known as ayran soup. Eight of these nine soups, all except helle, contain yarma or green lentils; this shows how fundamental the two ingredients of çatal çorba are in the soup tradition of Amasya cuisine.

Each of these soups uses the same ingredients in a different direction. In cut dough soup, green lentils are cooked with hand-cut pieces of dough and thickened with strained yoghurt. In bıdıklı soup, cracked yarma is boiled with fresh shelled beans and yoghurt is added afterwards. In topal börülce soup, yarma cooks with black-eyed peas, and onion fried with cracklings made from sheep's tail fat is added. In sakala çarpan soup, lentils meet noodles, while in whole yarma soup, yarma and chickpeas soaked overnight are combined with ayran made from strained yoghurt, and the soup can also be eaten cold. Within this family, çatal çorba is the only soup that uses no yoghurt, brings lentils and yarma directly together and is strengthened with minced meat. The final touch common to most of these soups is mint fried in butter; in this respect the minted butter that completes çatal çorba is the shared signature of Amasya's soup cooking.

Toyga soup is prepared with dried beans, chickpeas and wheat and thickened with yoghurt; in the book's recipe egg yolk, flour, yoghurt, yarma, garlic and chickpeas are boiled in meat stock, and once cooked, mint fried in butter is added. Helle soup is a plain soup made by frying flour and rice in butter and cooking them with water, known locally as flour soup, and it is found in almost all of Amasya's restaurants. Helle, which can also be made with lentils instead of rice, is preferred as an opener to a meal for its gentle texture, which eases the digestion of the main course. Among these soups, çatal çorba, with its minced meat and grainy texture, is one of the most filling. Toyga soup, on the other hand, holds a special place in table etiquette. In Amasya the table for an esteemed guest (ağır misafir), a visitor from elsewhere who usually spends the night in the house, consists of six dishes, and the order of service begins with toyka soup, continues with whole meat, rice pilaf, sinisu börek and okra, and ends with a dessert. In this arrangement the first dish falls to toyga soup, while çatal çorba is remembered rather as a dish of the everyday family table.

In Amasya cuisine yarma is not used only in soups. It also goes into the filling of bakla dolması together with minced meat, onion, tomato paste and spices; this dish, prepared in winter with broad beans threaded on strings and dried through the summer, is regarded as unique to Amasya. Keşkek is also made with yarma, and in the Amasya style some fenugreek is added alongside the leg of mutton. The habit of pounding wheat and using it grain by grain is common to the region's grain culture, and çatal çorba is the plainest example of this habit.

The Frame of Amasya Cuisine

The value of çatal çorba is better understood when the cuisine around it is taken into account. Amasya's food culture extends from keşkek, one of the staple dishes of the Central Asian Turks, reaching another level of refinement in the city, to dried broad beans, a hard and unassuming ingredient, being turned into a work of craft such as bakla dolması. According to the account in the introduction to the Amasya Mutfağı book, Amasya, known as the City of Princes, developed its cuisine with a flavour and appearance worthy of sultans while serving as a school for candidates to the throne; the cream cake eaten in the palace became cherry bread in the hands of the people, and stale bread became the dessert called unutma beni (forget-me-not). Among the regional dishes approved by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism are pastries such as Amasya çöreği, hengel, meatless mantı, eli böğründe, poppy seed and walnut çörek, aubergine pilaf and sini su böreği. Soups are the everyday face of this broad picture.

In Amasya the culture of hospitality matters as much as the food itself. According to accounts, the people of Amasya like to see a guest at their table at every meal; if there is no guest, they invite a poor or homeless person to the table and share their food with him. At village weddings cauldrons of keşkek, pilaf, meat and halva are boiled, and guests used to sit down at the table with a wooden spoon tucked into their belts, since spoons were once hard to come by. At the bride's bath, bakla dolması, walnut puaça, bat and lokma are served. Although çatal çorba does not appear in the old menus of these ceremonies, it is a dish that every household cooked again and again through the winter, its rhythm tied to daily life, and according to the registration certificate it has today found its way onto the tables of special occasions as well.

Winter Provisions and the Cuisine of Contentment

It can be said that çatal çorba is a product of the tradition of winter provisioning. Green lentils are dried and stored after the harvest, wheat is pounded into yarma, and onion and tomato paste sit in the pantry through the winter. In a region where fresh vegetables become scarce in the cold months, the value of a dish that provides protein, carbohydrate and fibre in a single pot is easy to understand. The geographical indication certificate's reference to green lentils and yarma as products widely grown in the region also makes the soup's link with local farming clear. That the soup exists in two forms, with and without minced meat, likewise stems from this realistic approach to cooking: if there is meat it is added, and if not, the soup is filling without it.

The same approach can be seen in other dishes of Amasya cuisine. Turning stale bread into the dessert called unutma beni instead of throwing it away, and the story of cherry bread as the invention of a poor family, are parts of the same frugal line. Çatal çorba has no showy ingredient, yet everything in it is cheap, filling and keeps through the winter. Lentil soup is the basis of the winter table in many parts of Turkey; what distinguishes the Amasya style is that it adds yarma to the lentils and raises the soup to the weight of a meal.

Çatal Çorba Today

Today çatal çorba is on the menus of restaurants in Amasya that serve regional food and is recommended to visitors as one of the typical soups of the area. At home it continues to hold its place; it is said to be favoured as a nourishing option for children's meals and, because it uses protein-rich pulses, to be eaten in place of a main course as well. The basic form of the soup, with green lentils, yarma and minced meat, appears among the dishes of Amasya under the soup category in the traditional cuisine record of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and since 2025 it has also been protected by a geographical indication.

As a living dish, çatal çorba differs a little from pot to pot. In one house the minced meat is a handful short, in another the tomato paste a little generous; in one the mint is fried liberally in butter, in another pickles and spring onions accompany the soup. Although the registration sets a standard for producers who will use the name and emblem, it does not remove this variety in home kitchens. The main framework, however, does not change: lentils, yarma, fried onion and minted butter. Though the origin of its name is unknown, the soup's place is certain, and it continues to be cooked on the winter tables of Amasya with the same plainness.

Chronology

October 2006: The first edition of the Amasya Governorship's book Amasya Mutfağı is published; çatal çorba appears as the second recipe in the soup section, after toyka soup.

February 2010: The second edition of the Amasya Mutfağı book is printed.

November 2021: The local press reports that the origin of the name çatal çorba is unknown even to master cooks and local researchers.

9 January 2023: The Yeşilırmak Basin Development Union applies to the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office for a geographical indication for "Amasya Çatal Çorbası".

6 November 2025: Amasya Çatal Çorbası is registered as a designation of origin under number 1788; protection runs from the date of application.

Present day: Çatal çorba appears as one of the soups of Amasya in the traditional cuisine record of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The date of its first appearance is not documented.

Bibliography

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