Skip to main content
Epicurious
Bon Appétit

Cucumber Sekanjabin Sharbat

Cucumber Sekanjabin Sharbat on a golden tray
Photograph by Isa Zapata, food styling by Pearl Jones, prop styling by Marina Bevilacqua

Sekanjabin is a combination of sugar or honey, water, vinegar, and mint, simmered into a sweet-tart syrup. Keep a jar on hand for making cordials (sharbats) or flavoring desserts. This refreshing cucumber version, which gets additional tanginess from whey, is a favorite of Homa Dashtaki, author of cookbook Yogurt & Whey and founder of Brooklyn-based yogurt company The White Moustache.

What you’ll need

Read More
Turkish-Style Eggs and Tomatoes
This riff on çılbır marries garlicky yogurt, fried eggs, and spiced butter with summer tomatoes.
Green Beans With Tahini Sbagliato
An accidental recipe (sbagliatio means mistaken in Italian) yields a delicious herby tahini dressing that is excellent poured over lightly blanched green beans.
Quick Butter-Braised Tomatoes and Dumplings
Store-bought dumplings, fresh tomatoes, butter, and soy sauce simmer away for dinner in a flash.
Minty Chicken Meatballs
Who says ground chicken is boring? Two whole bunches of mint and some aromatics give these chicken meatballs their bracingly herby flavor.
Scallion-Speckled Rice
Scallion-infused oil, or pa gireum in Korean, is a fragrant way to upgrade a pot of rice.
Baan Mae’s Thom Khem Thaohu
Slowly caramelized sugar, sweet lychees, warming spices, and fiery ginger create the perfect base for tofu to simmer in.
Matcha-Berry Frozen Yogurt
Froyo for one, made in a blender and topped with a crackly magic shell.
Rouille
This piquant French sauce comes together in the blender in just five minutes.