Turkish Lentil Soup

Turkish Lentil Soup: Step by Step

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1. Warm the olive oil in a large pot and cook the onion for 8 minutes until soft and translucent.

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2. Add the carrot and potato and cook 5 minutes more.

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3. Stir in the tomato purée and cumin and cook 2 minutes.

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4. Add the lentils and the stock, bring to a boil, then simmer 30 minutes until the lentils have completely collapsed and the vegetables are very soft.

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5. Blend until absolutely smooth — a stick blender for 3 full minutes, or a jug blender in batches. It should be silky, not grainy.

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6. Return to the pan, add the salt, and thin with a little hot water if it has gone too thick. It should coat a spoon lightly.

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7. For the chilli butter, melt the butter and cook until it just starts to foam, then take it off the heat and stir in the Aleppo pepper and dried mint. It will sizzle and turn red.

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8. Ladle the soup into bowls and spoon the chilli butter over the surface.

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9. Serve with lemon wedges and bread (optional), and squeeze the lemon in generously.

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Related guide: Ingredient substitutions.

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Keep an Eye on These

1. Blend for longer than you think. Silky, not grainy.
2. The chilli butter and the lemon are the recipe, not garnishes.
3. Rinse the lentils until the water is clear or the soup will taste dusty.

Common Substitutions & Variations

• Fresh herbs work in place of the dried mint at roughly three times the quantity — a teaspoon of dried is about a tablespoon of fresh, chopped.

About This Recipe

The soup itself is deliberately plain — the flavour arrives at the end with the chilli butter and the lemon, which is why a version tasted before those go in always seems disappointing. Blending it completely smooth is not optional in Turkey; texture is what separates mercimek çorbası from a lentil stew.

What to Serve It With

Lemon wedges · Warm flatbread · Pickled vegetables

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Turkish Pilav.

Storing Leftovers

Refrigerate up to 4 days and freeze 3 months. It thickens; loosen with water on reheating.

The Numbers per Serving

Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: where a line offers a choice of foods, only one of them is counted; an ingredient listed without an amount is not counted, so the figures run low. How the figures are worked out.

Vegan when made with olive oil rather than butter. Gluten-free when served without the bread.

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