What to eat in Uzbekistan in each season: spring, summer, autumn and winter

After the winter, the first thing on the table is green. Ko’k somsa, samsa filled with herbs and spinach, is baked in early spring, when the first young shoots appear, and ko’k chuchvara are small dumplings with a herb filling. Both belong to Navruz, the spring new year on 21 March, together with halim, a thick, slow-cooked porridge of wheat and meat, and sumalak, sprouted wheat stirred all night in a big kazan and shared with the neighbours in the morning. In early spring families also make a salad of radishes and eggs.

In April and May, look for the samsa of Sukok, a mountain village in the Parkent district: its filling of spring greens and mador is so local that the name is on the national register of geographical indications. From Tashkent we organise a trip to Sukok, about five hours with transport and a guide.

Fruit begins at the end of April, when the first cherries usually reach the wholesale markets, with strawberries beside them; the south comes first. Our Navruz in Bukhara tour puts you in Bukhara on 21 March, with a tasting of sumalak and national sweets. More about the holiday is in Navruz in Uzbekistan, and about the season in Uzbekistan in spring.

June is the sweetest month at the bazaar. The late cherries last until the middle of the month, and the apricot harvest peaks in its first half: Uzbekistan is the second-largest apricot grower in the world. Peaches follow, with July the busiest month, and then the melons. The first big batches reach Tashkent in early June, and by July they are everywhere. In early August Khiva holds its melon festival, Qovun sayli; in 2026 it ran on 7–9 August.

Sour cherries, olcha in Uzbek, follow the sweet ones in June. Most of them go into compote and jam that families keep for tea in winter, and in June you will see them piled high at the bazaar.

Summer is also when vegetables from the open fields arrive and prices fall: in June 2025 tomatoes became 46.6% cheaper in a single month, and cucumbers 30.9%. This is the season of achchiq-chuchuk, thinly sliced tomato and onion with hot pepper, the salad that comes with plov and shashlik.

In the heat, people here eat cold and sour. Chalop is a cold soup of qatiq, soured milk, thinned with water, with cucumber, dill and coriander. Ayran, suzma diluted with cold water, is the drink of hot days, and kuksu, a cold noodle soup in beef broth with cucumber and egg, is another summer favourite. Plov stays a lunch dish, cooked in the morning and eaten by midday. The fruit calendar, with the melon varieties of Khorezm, is in fruit season in Uzbekistan, and how we plan a hot day is in Uzbekistan in summer.

September is the peak of the harvest. Grapes have been coming in since mid-August, one variety after another until late autumn; figs, quince and pomegranates are at their peak, Khorezm melons stay in season into October, and persimmons arrive in October and November. Pumpkin counts as the autumn crop here, and it goes into samsa and manti: ask for qovoqli, “with pumpkin”.

Autumn, like spring, is the season of weddings, and a wedding begins with plov. Nahor oshi, the morning plov, is served to the guests between about 6 and 9 a.m., two people to each large platter. A wedding cannot be booked, but a family table can: in Bukhara and Khiva we arrange a dinner with a local family and a Khiva family evening, and we pass any food restrictions on to the hosts in advance.

When the nights turn cold in October, soups come back: shurpa of mutton and vegetables, mastava, the rice soup served with a spoonful of qatiq, and mashxo’rda of rice and mung beans. September and October are also the months of the grape harvest at the wineries; we arrange tastings at Uzumfermer near Tashkent and Bagizagan near Samarkand for guests of 21 and older. More in plov in Uzbekistan, Uzbek wedding traditions and Uzbekistan in autumn.

Winter food is food for warmth. Naryn, Tashkent’s dish of fine noodles and horse meat, is cooked mainly in the cold months and for big occasions. It is served cold, with slices of qazi, the horse-meat sausage, and a bowl of hot broth on the side. In the cold season people make salads of Margilan radish, and one winter salad pairs it with pomegranate seeds: anor va turp.

Fresh fruit gives way to what has been stored. Khorezm farmers hang their winter melons from the beams of airy sheds and sell them all winter. Dried apricots, raisins, figs and nuts fill the bazaars, and tea comes with navat, sugar crystals grown on threads. Plov does not stop for the cold either: on 14 December 2025 Khiva cooked 9 tonnes of it in one cauldron at its plov festival.

New Year’s Eve is a family night with a full table, with Olivier salad and tangerines among the usual dishes; on our New Year tours the festive dinner is included. In 2027 Ramadan is expected to begin around 8 February, the time of nishalda, a white whipped sweet of egg whites and sugar eaten with bread and tea. More in New Year in Uzbekistan, Uzbek sweets and Uzbekistan in winter.

If food is the reason for your trip, our culinary tour Taste of the Road is built for it: eight days from Tashkent to Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand, a bazaar in every city and three cooking classes, tukhum-barak and shivit oshi in Khiva, bakhsh in Bukhara and plov in Samarkand. It is a private tour, so it starts on the day you choose, and the bazaar walks show whatever the season has brought: apricots in June, pomegranates in October, dried fruit and navat in winter.

On a classic route the season comes to you anyway. Your guide knows the stalls at Chorsu in Tashkent and Siab in Samarkand and takes you along the rows that are worth it that week, in the morning, when the bread is fresh and the fruit has just arrived. On our tours the guide speaks your language and is included in the price. You can add an evening with a family in Bukhara or Khiva or, in April and May, the trip to Sukok; for these services the guide’s language is agreed when you book.

Tell us about your diet in advance. Vegetarians eat well in spring and autumn, with the herb and pumpkin dishes, and we choose the places with that in mind; more in vegetarian in Uzbekistan. Drink bottled water, and wash fruit with it or ask the hotel kitchen to slice it for you.

Tell us when you can travel and what you like to eat, and we will suggest a route for that season. Start with the tour finder, where “Food and markets” is already selected, or send us your dates for a tailor-made tour, and we will reply with a programme and a price.