Lentil Soup

There is nothing I like more than coming home to a big bowl of steaming hot soup in winter. As the days get shorter and a golden brown blanket of leaves cover the ground, I find myself craving the warm and familiar tastes of my childhood.

I used to come home from school all worn out from being stuck in a classroom all day to find my mother stirring a big pot of soup patiently over the stove. The smell of exciting ingredients would start to flirt with my nose even before I opened the front door. With each spoonful, my worries would start to melt away and the heaviness on my chest would be replaced by a warm and fuzzy feeling instead.

No Turkish dinner table is complete without a soup, especially in winter. We love our soups so much that sometimes we have soup even if it is the middle of summer. In all the Turkish restaurants, there would at least be "one soup of the day" all year round, rain, hail or shine.

When it comes to soups, it is hard for me to pick one favourite. It is not because I cannot decide, but rather, my favourites change depending on my moods.

For example, if I am coming down with a cold and it is winter, my favourite is tavuk suyu corbasi (a simple chicken broth soup with angel hair pasta) with lots of fresh lemon juice. If it is summer, I prefer sehriyeli domates corbasi (a simple broth blushed with fresh tomato pulps and risoni) instead to cure my colds.

If I am in an indulgent mode and want to pamper myself, it is kremali domates corbasi (creamy tomato soup made from scratch with home made croutons and lots of shredded mozzarella.

If I am tired and worn out and don't feel like having a big dinner but rather slurp mouthfuls of a big bowl of hot and hearty soup, then it is either mercimek corbasi (lentil soup) with home made croutons for some earthy flavours or  tarhana corbasi (a soup made from a dried paste of wheat, yoghurt, onions, herbs and spices) with crumbs of feta if I am craving a savoury flavour.

If I am in the mood for something a bit more refreshing but it is cold outside, it is definitely yogurt corbasi (yoghurt soup) with lots of dried mint.

And last but not least, if it is 4am in the morning and I am back from a big night out, it is definitely iskembe corbasi (tripe soup) with lots of vinegar and minced garlic. I can hear some of you going "No way Jose!" but believe me it is not only the best cure for a hangover, but also a delicacy. If you are ever in Turkey, put aside all your prejudices and do try it at least once and I bet you, you will be converted.

When we were in Cesme (the small holiday village where my parents live on the Aegean coast) last northern summer, we went out to have some soup to end the night with. My brother had to ascertain if the lentil soup was strained or pureed before he would have it. According to my lovely brother it is not the real deal unless lentil soup is made by the traditional method of slowly straining the cooked soup through a strainer with the help of a wooden spoon. I neither have the patience nor the interest to even attempt such an exercise so I either use the blender attachment of my food processor or my hand blender to puree my lentil soup. The taste is exactly the same and I bet even he can't tell the difference if he tries it.

The lentil soup recipe below is the one I have learnt from my mother. You might find versions of this soup with tomato paste or hot pepper paste in the list of ingredient or some other spices. The beauty of Turkish food is that each region adds their own favourite ingredients to their foods. As my family is from the Aegean side of Turkey, our food is milder and we use tomato paste sparingly. But if you ask one of my friends whose family is originated from the eastern part of Turkey, they would not even call this soup complete unless there is a spoonful of tomato paste and lots of chilli in it. 


Mercimek Corbasi (Lentil Soup) 

Ingredients:

1 cup of dried red lentils
750ml water
1 chicken or vegetable stock cube
1 small brown onion
1 small potato
1 small carrot
1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons of butter/margarine or olive oil
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
1/2 table spoon dried mint leaves
Lemon wedges to serve

Here is how:

Wash the lentils under running water and drain well.

Cut the potatoes and carrots into small cubes.

Dice the onions and sauté them in a big casserole pan with 1 tablespoon of oil for about 3 minutes.

Add the lentils, potato, carrots, chicken stock cube and water to the onions (if you prefer to use liquid stock, then use liquid stock instead of water and omit the stock cube). 

Bring the water to boil and then turn the heat down and simmer for about 20-25 minutes or until the potatoes and carrots are softened. Stir the mixture in intervals to prevent the lentils sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning.

(If you own a pressure cooker then you can use it to cook the vegetables according to your pressure cooker instructions. All cookers are different so cooking times will vary but to serve as a reference, I have a 6 litre pressure cooker and it usually takes about 5 minutes on the high setting for the soup to be cooked.)

Let the soup cool slightly and strain the soup through a strainer or puree with a blender until you get a smooth puree, return it back to the pan and heat it up. If the puree is too thick, you can add some hot water to dilute it.

Melt the butter in a small frying pan, stir in the mint and chilli, let it sizzle for a minute then pour it onto the soup, lightly stir and serve with the lemon wedges on the side. 

This soup would keep in the fridge for about a week but lentils tend to soak up the water overnight and the soup becomes solid. If the soup is too thick the next day, you can always dilute it with more water.

Afiyet Olsun!