Turkish Lentil Soup “Mercimek Corbasi”
Easy Turkish Red Lentil soup “Kırmızı Mercimek Çorbası” is one of the best known among the Turkish Soups.
It is so easy to make, very healthy, and delicious. With some dried bread cubes, you may even have it for lunch or dinner time with some side dishes. I cooked the Turkish-style lentil soup in a pressure cooker but you can definitely cook it in a regular pan. It doesn’t take too much time. Also, I used chicken stock for deeper taste but if you are vegan you can omit that too.
Ingredients
- 1 medium-size onion
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 2 medium-size carrots optional
- 1 medium-size potato optional
- 1+¼ cup red lentils washed
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp dried mint
- 1/2 tsp cumin red ground pepper
- 1/4 tsp turmeric optional
- 2 cloves of chopped garlic
- 2 cups chicken or meat stock preferably homemade, optional
- 4-6 cups boiling water Enough for the soup consistency
- For the butter and pepper sauce:
- 1 tbsp butter 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp or less red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Chop 1 onion, potato and, carrots roughly.
- Add 3-4 olive oil to the big deep pan or pressure cooker, add the veggies and begin to stir.
- Add the spices mint, cumin, red pepper, salt and, a bit of turmeric (optional) for deeper color
- Add washed red lentils, garlic half tbsp flour, and continue to stir for about 2 minutes.
- Add about 2 cups of chicken or meat stock and add 3 cups of water.
- Cook about 30 minutes or until veggies and lentils are soft.
- Turn it into a puree with a hand blender or food processor. Add more hot boiled water until it is in the desired consistency.
- For the butter sauce melt the butter and olive oil. Add red pepper flakes or paprika and heat up until a nice smell coming from the pepper flakes about 10 seconds.
- Drizzle over the soup in the pan or after serving to a plate and enjoy! Afiyet Olsun!
Video
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