Izmir Kumru - Turkish Sandwich

Izmir Kumru is a toasted Turkish Sandwich made with sucuk, salami, and kasar cheese in a sesame roll. It comes from Çeşme, a little beach town near Izmir, and you'll find it at every snack kiosk along that coast. My recipe puts it together in about 15 minutes, start to finish.

The bread and the meats toast in butter, and the cheese fries in the pan until the edges brown. Proper kumru bread is hard to find outside Turkey, so the recipe includes the substitutes that work. It makes 2 sandwiches, and one is a full lunch.

What is Kumru?

Just like Turkish Boyoz Pastry, kumru is a street food that has been around for over 150 years. What makes it special is the soft bread, made with a chickpea leaven.

The word kumru refers to both the sandwich and the bread. Kumru bread is a dense, yet lightly crusty bread topped with sesame seeds, and hard to find outside of Izmir. As a substitute, you can modify the simit dough into a kumru loaf shape.

Or for a quick fix, use a sandwich roll with sesame seeds that is lightly crusty but yielding enough to keep your sandwich fillings safely contained.

Until the 1940s, the kumru sandwich was served cold with İzmir tulum cheese, tomatoes, and peppers. The bread was shaped round, very similar to Simit (Turkish Sesame Bagel).

The modern version is shaped like a dove, which is what kumru means in Turkish. It's filled with grilled cheese, sucuk, salami, and tomato.

This loaded hot version is known as Çeşme kumrusu, after the town where it was first made, and there are shops in Izmir that sell nothing else.

Ingredients You'll Need

Please scroll down to the recipe card below for the full ingredients list with measurements, complete recipe method, recipe notes, and nutritional information.

• Kumru bread - Almost impossible to find outside Turkey, so use a demi baguette or a sesame-topped sandwich bun instead. To make your own, shape my Simit dough into tapered rolls, dip them in a molasses and water glaze, and cover them with sesame seeds.

• Sucuk - A dry-cured, spicy fermented beef sausage, the same one I cook with eggs for Sucuklu Yumurta and bake on Sucuklu Pide. Buy it from Turkish or Middle Eastern shops, or use pepperoni instead.

• Kasar cheese - A semi-hard yellow cheese that tastes like a milder cheddar, often made from sheep's milk. Find it in Turkish shops, or use provolone or Gruyère instead.

• Salami - Thinly sliced beef or turkey salami.

• Butter - Good quality and softened, for toasting the bread.

• Tomato and pickles - Ripe, sweet tomatoes and pickled gherkins, both thinly sliced.

• Ketchup and mayonnaise - A little squeeze of each at the end, to your taste.

How to Make Izmir Kumru at Home?

Cut your sandwich bread in half lengthwise and spread the softened butter. Grill the bread pieces on a skillet or a heavy-based pan until they are nicely browned and crisped, for about 5 minutes. Set them aside.

Cook the sliced sucuk pieces and salami until crispy and slightly curled on the edges in the same pan. 

Remove the sucuk and salami from the pan and transfer them onto a plate. 

Keep the grease from the sucuk and sausages in the pan. It adds flavor to the cheese and stops it sticking to the pan.

Place the sliced kasar cheese onto the very hot pan. Let them grill until they are lightly browned with the grease from the sucuk and salami.

Flip the cheese slices with a metal spatula and then grill them for a few more minutes. When they are lightly browned on both sides, carefully remove the cheeses from the pan and place them on top of the bottom half of the kumru bread.

Add the sucuk and salami, and then top them with sliced tomatoes along with sliced pickles.

Garnish with a squeeze of ketchup, and mayonnaise if desired.

Recipe Tips From the Chef

• If you can't find kumru bread, use a sandwich roll with sesame seeds that is lightly crusty but yielding enough to keep your sandwich fillings safely contained.

• Get the pan properly hot before the cheese goes in, and make sure there's enough fat in it. That's what gives the kasar its browned crust.

• Use ripe, sweet tomatoes and the right cheese. Kasar sears and holds its shape briefly under high heat. Provolone or Gruyère work if you can't find it.

• Slice the sucuk and salami into thin strips rather than rounds. They sit flatter in the sandwich and don't slide out as you eat.

• If the cheese isn't melting fast enough, close the sandwich and put it back in the pan with a lid on for a couple of minutes. The trapped heat melts the cheese and binds the filling.

Variations

Breakfast kumru is the original cold version. Butter the sesame roll, then fill it with crumbled İzmir tulum cheese, sliced tomato, and a green pepper. Nothing gets grilled, and it's eaten with a glass of Turkish Tea - Çay.

Kumru tost is the pressed version. Build the sandwich, then flatten it in a toastie machine or under a heavy pan until the bread crisps and the cheese melts through. This is how many kumru shops in Izmir serve it.

In Izmir the stack often carries a third meat: sosis, a soft hot dog style sausage, sliced and fried with the others. Add it if you can find it.

Yengen is the same sandwich made in a plain soft roll instead of the sesame kumru bread. In Izmir, the bread is what decides which name it gets.

Serving Suggestions

Serve the kumru hot, straight from the pan, with pickled chilies on the side.

A glass of cold Ayran is what it comes with in Izmir, and it cuts through the richness.

It works as a late-night snack, a lunch on the go, or a quick dinner with nothing else needed.

Storage and Make Ahead Instructions

Kumru is best eaten as soon as it's made, when the bread is still crisp and the cheese is soft.

You can slice the meats, cheese, tomato, and pickles ahead and keep them covered in the fridge, so the sandwich only takes minutes at lunchtime.

I don't recommend storing the assembled sandwich, because the bread softens as it sits.

Recipe FAQs

Related Recipes

For more delicious Turkish street food recipes why not try:

Did you make this recipe? Please let me know how it turned out! Leave a comment below and tag @cookingorgeous on Instagram and hashtag it #cookingorgeous.

I hope you enjoy the process of making this famous street food İzmir Kumru - Turkish Sandwich as much as you enjoy eating it! 🙂