Winter is coming and Ezogelin (Ezo the bride) soup will be your best friend to protect you from getting cold on harsh winter days.
Ezogelin (Ezo the bride) soup is one of the most famous and beloved soup varieties of Turkish cuisine. You can find this delicious soup almost on all restaurants’ menus in Turkey.
In our country; during the wintertime, people like to start the day with soup because it gives great starter energy for preparing the person for a hardworking day. Due to its basic ingredients and being easy to make, this soup will be your other Turkish go-to soup for cold winter days.
The Story of Ezogelin Soup
Ezogelin (Ezo the bride) soup is not also famous because of its delicious taste but also famous for its sad story too.
The story goes that Ezo (her real name was Zöhre) is a legendary beauty from a small village of Gaziantep city in Turkey. At the age of 20, she makes her first marriage but this marriage is short-lived. After she goes back to her family, she does not marry for about 6 years. During her single years, she gets even more beautiful and starts to get marriage proposals every day. However; she denies all those marriage proposals. Finally, her family forces her to marry her cousin, and then after the wedding; she moves to Syria with her husband for a new life.
When she is in Syria, she starts to miss her village so much and gets very sick; however, she cannot be treated well because of poverty. One day, her sickness escalates and sometime around 1955-1956, she dies. At her last wish, she wanted to be buried in her own village in Gaziantep city of Turkey.
As for the soup itself; the rumors have it that Ezo has created this soup by using whatever she had left in the house during the grim times of poverty.
In Turkey, many films are made based on her unfortunate life. The most famous one was made in 1968, based on the story of the well-known Turkish poet Behçet Kemal Çağlar. In that movie, Fatma Girik (one of the most famous actresses in the Turkish movie industry during the 60s and 70s) played the role of Ezo the Bride. This movie won the Second Best Film and the Best Actress awards at the Adana Golden Boll Film Festival in 1969.
Where to eat?
As I mentioned above, you can find Ezogelin soup in most restaurants in Turkey. But Kebab restaurants are the ones who like to offer this soup on their menu. In southern cities of Turkey, most of the kebab restaurants are bringing this delicious soup before they serve the main course as a starter during the harsh winter days.
I have seen on food forums that some people are thinking that Ezogelin soup and Turkish Red Lentil soup are the same; however, they are not. They both have some common ingredients in them but the taste is way different from each other. I hope you will like the taste of Ezogelin soup as much as you do Turkish Red Lentil soup.
Ezogelin Soup
Ingredients
- 6 cups water
- 1 cup Red lentils
- 3 tbsp Bulgur
- 3 tbsp White rice
- 1 tbsp Pepper Paste
- 1 tbsp Tomato Paste
- 1 Onion (medium size) finely chopped
- 3 Cloves of garlic minced
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Dried mint leaves
Instructions
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Wash the red lentils in a wire mesh strainer and then wash the white rice and drain the excess water.
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Place the red lentils, white rice, and bulgur in a pot together with 6 cups of water and add the salt, and bring to boil. And then simmer for 20 minutes.
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While red lentils, white rice, and bulgur mix is cooking; place the olive oil and butter in a saucepan and saute onions and garlic together until they get soft.
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Add the pepper paste, tomato paste and dried mint leaves to the saucepan and saute for about 5 minutes.
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Place the mix into the pot and let them cook together additional 10 more minutes. Stir in every 3-minute intervals.
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Serve with a slice of lemon.
Recipe Notes
Tip: Do not put Ezogelin soup in a blender. Once everything is cooked well, a gentle whisk could work just fine.
