Cuisine · Uzbekistan

Uzbek cooking

Uzbek recipes tested and adapted for the home kitchen — 6 dishes from Uzbekistan, each with step-by-step instructions and ingredient notes.

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🇺🇿UzbekistanEasy

Salads

Achichuk

An Uzbek salad of paper-thin ripe tomatoes and onion with hot green chili and fresh herbs, dressed simply with salt, pepper, and a little unrefined sunflower oil. It is the classic fresh companion to plov, cutting the richness of the rice with bright acidity and a touch of heat.

15 min60 kcal6 serves

🌱Vegan🌾Gluten-free⚡Quick

🇺🇿UzbekistanAdvanced

Cereal and Pasta Dishes

Lagman

A dish widely known throughout Central Asia — vegetables, meat, homemade noodles and a rich meat broth flavored with pepper, bay leaf and herbs.

95 min450 kcal4 serves

🇺🇿UzbekistanAdvanced

Cereal and Pasta Dishes

Plov (Uzbek Pilaf)

The king of Central Asian cuisine: a fragrant pilaf of long-grain rice cooked with slow-fried lamb, golden carrots, whole garlic heads and cumin in a large kazan. Rich, aromatic and deeply satisfying — every grain of rice absorbs the flavors of the zirvak base.

180 min1000 kcal10 serves

💪High protein

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Flour and Confectionery Products

Samsa (Uzbek Lamb Pastries)

Samsa are Uzbek baked pastries with a crisp, layered dough and a juicy filling of hand-chopped lamb and onion. The layering is built by rolling butter into thin sheets of dough, which creates flaky, oven-crisped pastry without a drop of yeast. The golden rule: chop the meat with a knife, never mince it, and use as much onion as meat.

120 min380 kcal12 serves

💪High protein

🇺🇿UzbekistanAdvanced

Soups

Shurpa

A slow-simmered Uzbek lamb soup of bone-in lamb, chickpeas, and large chunks of vegetables in a clear, fragrant broth. Seasoned with cumin and coriander, it is served with plenty of cilantro and flatbread, the broth often drunk alongside the meat and vegetables.

120 min350 kcal6 serves

🌾Gluten-free

Uzbek Kavardak (Lamb and Potato Stew with Cumin)

🇺🇿UzbekistanAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Uzbek Kavardak (Lamb and Potato Stew with Cumin)

Uzbek kavardak is a hearty stew of lamb, potatoes, and seasonal vegetables, slow-cooked in a kazan with cumin, coriander, and fresh tomatoes. The name translates from Uzbek as shambles or mess — the dish was traditionally made from whatever vegetables were on hand when there was meat to cook. Key technique: lamb is seared in smoking-hot oil until a deep crust forms, vegetables are layered in stages, and everything braises under a tight lid until the potatoes have soaked up the meat juices. Serves six, served in deep bowls with fresh cilantro and crushed garlic on top, alongside flatbread. Forgiving on ingredients, strict on technique.

120 min500 kcal6 serves

💪High protein🌾Gluten-free