Turkish Red Lentil Soup is the most famous soup of Turkish cuisine. The main ingredients of this delicious soup are red lentils, flour, butter, onion, carrot, and potato. We called it Mercimek Çorbası and for me, it is the king of all soups. In Turkish cuisine, soups have a very special place and you can consider soups as the Ambassador food of our table.
We; Turks, love to eat soups for thousands of years. It is a heritage from our forefathers. You can find this special and delicious soup where ever you go in Turkey from south to north and east to west. It has unbelievable popularity even outside Turkish borders.
Most people around the globe think that Turkish cuisine is famous for its stuffed meals, kebabs, desserts, mezes, and pastries; however, no one mentions the importance of soups in our daily life. In my opinion, soups have even more important than most of the other foods in our cuisine.
I know that tourists are only thinking to eat kebab varieties when they come to Turkey; however, I strongly recommend you try Turkish soups, especially Lentil Soup before you start to eat your main dish. Most of the restaurants in Turkey offer Lentil Soup on their menus because it is the most-wanted soup of all time in Turkey. I hope you add Lentil Soup to your daily life menu. At least for cold winter days. You will not regret it.
Turkish Red Lentil Soup
Ingredients
Soup
- 1 cup Red Lentils
- 8 cups water
- 3 tbsp Butter
- 2 tbsp white flour
- 2 onions dice cut
- 2 potatoes dice cut
- 2 carrots dice cut
- 1 clove garlic dice cut
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Paprika & Butter Sauce for Topping
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 1 tbsp red paprika powder
- 1 tbsp red paprika
Serving
- 1 lemon wedges cut
Instructions
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Wash the red lentils in a wire mesh strainer and rinse them well and set aside. Put 3 tbsp of butter in a saucepan and melt it. After that add the onions and garlic and saute them 3 minutes. After the onions get softy, add the white flour and saute them about 2 minutes.
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Add the potatoes, carrots, red lentils, salt and black pepper to the saucepan and then pour the 8 cups of water on to the mix. Stir the mix 5 minutes at medium heat and then close the lid and bring to boil.
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Simmer for 20 minutes until the lentils and vegetables are tender. Then insert a hand blender into the saucepan to puree the mix to reach the consistency of you want. And then transfer the soup into a soup bowl.
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Meanwhile, in a nonstick skillet melt the 2 tbsp butter and add the red paprika powder and red paprika and cook for 1 minute.
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Ladle the soup into small soup bowls and sprinkle some of the topping sauce mixture into each one. Serve with wedge cut lemon.
I am going to make this this evening. What’s the difference between red paprika powder
and red paprika? I love red lentils, I want to get this right. Thank you.
Dear Johanna; the red paprika powder is more micron size (grounded). You don’t feel the paprika pieces while you are eating. On the other hand; the regular red paprika pieces are big and they are not soluble as fast as paprika powder. The only difference; one is grounded and the other one not. I hope you enjoy the recipe. 😊🥣