Izmir Kumru - Turkish Sandwich

Izmir Kumru - Turkish Sandwich is a very popular street food originating from Çesme, a beautiful Aegean small beach town in İzmir.

It is made with a special bread roll called "kumru" which is typically filled with sucuk (spicy beef sausage), salami, kasar cheese, and tomato.

With my simple recipe and pro tips, you can make this delicious grilled cheese sandwich at home and get a taste of it without needing to go to Çesme!

What is Kumru?

Just like Turkish Boyoz Pastry, Kumru is a very popular street food that has been around for over 150 years.

It is very much loved by the Turkish people and has been awarded as one of the world's great grilled cheese sandwiches.

What makes this sandwich so special is the tasty soft bread made with chickpea sourdough.

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 means "kumru" in Turkish) and is served with grilled cheese, sucuk, tomatoes, and salami.

Although it is considered a street food, there are special restaurants that sell kumru sandwiches.

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

It is almost impossible to find Kumru bread outside of Turkey.

You can substitute it with a demi baguette or a sandwich bun topped with sesame seeds.

If you want to make your own, you can use the dough for my Simit recipe.

Simply shape the dough into a tapered roll resembling a kumru (dove bird) shape.

Give it a gentle cut lengthways along the top middle. 

Dip the roll into a warm glaze made with water and molasses for a few seconds.

Sprinkle the top with a generous amount of sesame seeds.

When baked, the bread roll should be a size of 16-18cm long and 4-6cm high with a light crust.

Sucuk

Sucuk or Sujuk is a dry-cured, spicy, and fermented sausage made with mainly beef meat and fat and sometimes with lamb or horse meat.

It is widely used in Turkey, especially for breakfast or as a topping for Pide. 

You can substitute it with pepperoni in this recipe.

You can buy sucuk from Turkish or Middle Eastern shops as well as from Amazon.

Kasar Cheese

It is a semi-hard yellow cheese that is similar to cheddar but much milder and is made from sheep milk.

It is widely used in Turkey for pastries and general cooking.

This Turkish yellow cheese sears and retains its shape for a short time when given a blast of heat.

You can find Kasar cheese from Turkish or Middle Eastern shops as well as from Amazon, or substitute it with provolone or Gruyère. 

You will also need thinly sliced beef or turkey salami, some type of pickles (I prefer pickled gherkin), nice ripe&sweet tomatoes, and good quality butter.

I also like to use a little squeeze of ketchup and mayonnaise.

How to Make Izmir Kumru at Home?

Making this delicious Turkish Kumru Sandwich is very simple and straightforward.

However, to achieve the best results you need to follow a few tips and simple steps:

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.

They will add flavor to the cheese and prevent them to stick 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.

Top 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.

• To get your cheese grilled properly get your grill pan really hot, and make sure there is enough fat to grease the cheese as it cooks.

• Try and find ripe and sweet tomatoes, and use the right type of cheese. Kasar cheese sears and retains its shape for a short time when given a blast of heat If you can't find kasar cheese, substitute it with provolone or Gruyère. 

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! 🙂 

Bon appétit! / Afiyet olsun!

This post uses affiliate links. This means that if you click on them and then buy something, we get a small amount of commission to keep the site running, but it doesn’t cost you anything more.