Turkish Red Lentil Soup Food

TURKISH RED LENTIL SOUP

Steps:

• Place the red lentils in a colandar and rinse.
• Sift through to remove and debris or damaged beans.
• Place the washed and cleaned lentils into a medium pot with the stock, potatoes, onions and paprika.
• Bring the pot to a boil and reduce to a simmer.
• Loosely place a lid on the pot leaving slightly ajar as to allow some evaporation.
• Cook for 40-40 minutes until the lentils are tender.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Place all but 1 cup of the soup into a blender or food processor and blend briefly.
• Return blended soup to the pot with the reserved cup of soup.
• Heat through.
• Serve.

TURKISH RED LENTIL SOUP WITH MINT

Steps:

• Heat the olive oil in a large pot over high heat. Cook and stir the onion in the hot oil until it begins to soften, about 2 minutes. Stir the garlic into the onion and cook another 2 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes to the onion mixture; continue to cook and stir another 10 minutes.
• Pour in the chicken stock, red lentils, bulgur, rice, tomato paste, paprika, cayenne pepper, and mint to the tomato mixture; season with salt and black pepper. Bring the soup to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook at a simmer until the the lentils and rice are cooked through, about 30 minutes.
• Pour the soup into a blender to no more than half full. Firmly hold the lid in place and carefully start the blender, using a few quick pulses to get the soup moving before leaving it on to puree. Puree in batches until smooth; pour into your serving dish. Alternately, you can use a stick blender and puree the soup in cooking pot.

TURKISH RED LENTIL SOUP

Steps:

• Combine everything into a pot, and bring to a boil.
• Lower the heat, loosely cover the pot, and let simmer for 25-30 minutes or until the lentils have completely softened.
• Let the soup cool for about 5-10 minutes (you can also cheat and just pop the pot in the fridge or freezer for a couple minutes while catching up on work and texting, like I did!).
• Pour the soup in a blender to puree it nicely.
• After pureeing, I sometimes like to pop in a can of big white beans like great northern beans, navy beans, cannellini, or butterbeans with a little fresh cilantro if I happen to have any on hand. These are found in piyaz, another delicious meze.
• Garnish with lemon and/or fresh mint, and serve with some delicious pitas, toasty Turkish bread, or sigara bourek!

TURKISH RED LENTIL SOUP

Steps:

• Place the lentils and rice in a sieve, rinse well and allow to drain.
• Meanwhile, heat the oil in a heavy four-quart saucepan. Add the onion, and saute until soft but not brown. Stir in the tomato paste, tomato, paprika and cayenne pepper. Add the lentils, rice and stock. Stir well, and simmer, covered, 30 minutes, until the rice is cooked and the lentils have virtually dissolved into a puree. Stir from time to time.
• Add salt to taste. If the soup is too thick, add a little water.
• Serve each portion sprinkled with mint leaves and croutons, with lemon wedges and yogurt on the side.

VEGAN TURKISH RED LENTIL SOUP

Steps:

• Heat olive oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and 1 teaspoon salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 8 minutes. Add thyme sprigs, garlic, cumin, and bay leaves; cook, stirring, for 1 minute more.
• Add vegetable broth, tomatoes, red lentils, tomato paste, oregano, remaining salt, and pepper to the saucepan. Cover partially and simmer, stirring occasionally, until lentils are very soft and falling apart, 30 to 45 minutes.
• Discard thyme sprigs and bay leaves. Let soup cool briefly, about 10 minutes. Transfer 4 cups of soup to a blender; blend until smooth. Mix back into the saucepan. Stir in water. Ladle soup into bowls; garnish with chopped parsley and a squirt of lemon juice.