Recipe: Turkish Lentil Soup

Warm, bright delicious soup for any time of the day.

Variations of this lentil soup may be found all across the Middle East but the most recognizable one is the Turkish variant. It is really simple and will not have to visit a specialty store to recreate it in your kitchen. I loved it as a starter for my breakfast, lunch and dinner in cold, cold Istanbul.

You need:

1. 1 cup of orange lentil

2. 1 medium carrot, diced

3. 1 medium onion, diced

4. 3 cloves of garlic

5. 1/2 tsp of ground cumin - you can use whole cumin too.

6. 1/2 tsp of red chilli powder

7. Salt to taste

Wash and soak the lentil in warm water for no less than half an hour. In the mean time, you should fry up the onions until transparent. Then add the diced carrot, whole garlic cloves, cumin and red chilli powder. Let the flavors get to know each other for a minute or two. Make sure the ingredients do not change color. Next, add the soaked lentil and give everything a good mix. Add three cups of hot water or vegetable stock. I would not suggest chicken stock because it takes away too much from the flavor of the lentil itself. I personally add just regular water.

Let the soup simmer on a medium flame for 30 to 40 minutes. Do check up on it occasionally, as the lentil can often sit at the bottom of the pan and burn. Do a taste test and add salt accordingly. At this point, you can decide whether you want to blend the soup to a fine consistency or keep it chunky. I like mine half blended.

You can pair it white some chunky, crusty bread and garnish with some Aleppo Pepper or just regular chilli flakes.