Uzbek Dough Products

Uzbek Soups

Shurpa, made from boneless lamb and vegetables, is the most famous Uzbek soup. To cook kovurma shurpa (kaurma shurpa), the meat is pre-fried before cooking. Kuza-shurva is a soup cooked in the oven in a clay pot.
Laghman is made with meat, vegetables and homemade noodles which are stretched by hand in an entertaining way.
Mashhurda is a thick soup made from rice and mung beans. Mastava is a rice soup with beef and vegetables which is often served with sour cream.
Nohat shurak (nohat-shorak) is a chickpea soup with meat that is usually served with a piece of kazy horse sausage

Uzbek Dairy Products

Uzbek dairy products are very popular and may be eaten both as a freestanding dish and as a condiment with soup or a main course.
Katyk is a sour fermented milk.
Suzma is a yogurt made by squeezing the excess liquid from katyk.
Kurt are salted katyk balls up to 5 centimeters in diameter (but often much smaller). They are dried in the sun and can be stored for a long time.
Katykli is a katyk-based soup with meat, rice and vegetables.
Chalop (okroshka in Russian) is a cold soup made from finely chopped vegetables and katyk diluted with water.
Ayran is a drink made from cold, sour milk diluted with carbonated or plain water. Ayran is often salted.

Uzbek Bread

It is impossible to imagine Uzbek cuisine without the most important component - bread. Uzbeks show great respect toward bread; it is broken by hand instead of cut with a knife, and should never be placed face down or thrown away. The most famous Uzbek bread is a white yeast bread called naan which is shaped into a circle and baked in a clay tandoor oven.
The many types of Uzbek bread can be divided into obi-non (made with yeast and water), festive patir naan (a heavier bread made with milk) and flaky breads. Like plov, each region in Uzbekistan has its own variety. For example, in Samarkand naan may be made with onions and meat worked into the dough. In Tashkent large patir naan is popular and in Fergana katlama, a flat bread greased with butter or sour milk, is common.