Salep is a flour made from grinding the dried tubers of various species of orchid, which contain a nutritious starch-like polysaccharide called bassorin .
Salep is also the name of a beverage made from salep flour, whose popularity spread beyond Turkey and the Middle East to England and Germany before the rise of coffee and tea.
The beverage salep is sometimes referred to as Turkish Delight, though that name is also used for lokum. As Turkish Delight, salep is mentioned in the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis when Edmund Pevensie requests some of the hot beverage from the White Witch in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Other desserts are also made from salep flour, including salep pudding and salep ice cream.
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