This is a restaurant-quality recipe for a turkish lentil soup. There are likely as many variations of this soup as there are turks. You can tell you're in an authentic place if you see turks sitting there eating this soup. Can be used as a starter or main course. Consistency should be a lot like a cream of tomato soup.
Stage 1:375g red lentils
2 onions, chopped
1 large potato, finely chopped
1 large carrot, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp vegetable stock powder (or use 2 liters of vegetable stock instead of this and the water)
1 tsp black pepper, crushed
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 liters water
Stage 2:1 Tbsp fresh mint, finelymchopped (or 1 heaped tsp dried mint, perfectly fine)
1/2 Tbsp fresh basil, finelymchopped
1/2 Tbsp fresh parsley, finelymchopped
2 1/2 Tbsp butter
1/2 Tbsp sweet paprika powder
1/2 Tbsp hot paprika powder ('Pul Biber')
1 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste (double concentrated)
Stage 3:1 tsp cumim powder
2-3 tsp lemon or lime juice
Garnish (per plate/deep dish):1 pinch of cumin
1 pinch of crushed chilli flakes
2 basil leaves
Stage 1:Wash the lentils well using cold water. Peel and chop the potato, carrot, onions amd garlic.
Bring the water to a boil in a large pot and add the potato, carrot, onions, lentils and powdered vegetable stock (you can replace the water and powdered vegetable stock with 'proper' vegetable stock if you want, but the powdered stuff is fine). Once everything has come a boil again, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer with a lid on for 30 minutes. Stir often to avoid the lentils catching on the bottom of the pot.
Stage 2:After 30 minutes, melt the butter in a frying pan and add the tomato paste, paprika powders as well as the basil and parsley. Keep stirring and fry it all for about 2-3 minutes to cook the rawness out of the tomato paste. Don't let it burn. Once done, add everything to the pot and continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes. Then use an immersion/stick blender to blend the soup well.
Stage 3:Add the cumin powder and lemon or lime juice and stir well.
Serve and GarnishFinally, ladle soup into deep dishes and garnish with a pinch of cumin, a pinch of crushed chilli flakes and 2 leaves of basil. You can also add some more lemon or lime juice if you like.
Serve with flatbread or toast.
Please try it and let me know if you think it's as good or better as BIR dhal
Topic: Mercimek Corbasi (Turkish lentil soup) (Read 10046 times)
