Mercimek Çorbası (Turkish Red Lentil Soup)

Name: Mercimek Çorbası (Turkish Red Lentil Soup)
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients: 250 g Red lentils, rinsed; 1 Onion, chopped; 1 Carrot, chopped; 1 Potato, small, chopped; 1 tbsp Tomato paste; 3 tbsp Olive oil; 1 tsp Ground cumin; 1 tsp Turkish red pepper flakes (pul biber); 1.5 tsp Salt; 1.5 L Water or vegetable stock; 1 Lemon, cut into wedges, to serve

Red lentils cooked down with onion and carrot until they melt into a smooth golden soup, seasoned with cumin and a swirl of pepper-red oil, and always finished at the table with a squeeze of lemon.

المصدر

الوصفة من Turkish home kitchens · 🏺 تقليدي · Household and neighbourhood cooking carried across Türkiye — no single author owns these dishes

Turkish · traditional dish — An ownerless traditional dish, so no individual cook is credited. There is no dedicated English Wikipedia article for mercimek çorbası, so the general Lentil soup article — which documents the Turkish red-lentil version, blended smooth and served with lemon — is cited here instead of an invented URL. Quantities and step wording are this book's own.

خلفية على ويكيبيديا ↗

شاهد طريقة التحضير · 3 فيديو

Eva The Mediterranean Dish Mayam’s Kitchen Corner

⏱ 40 دقيقة🍽 4 حصة🔥 180 سعرة🇹🇷 تركيا🌶️

نباتي صرفنباتيخالٍ من الغلوتينخالٍ من الألبانخالٍ من المكسراتحلال

الخطوات

Soften the onion and carrot in the olive oil for a few minutes, then stir in the tomato paste and cumin and cook for one minute.
Add the rinsed lentils, potato, salt and water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 25 minutes until everything is very soft.
💡 Skim off any foam that rises in the first few minutes — it makes the finished soup cleaner and clearer in flavour.
Blend the soup until completely smooth with a stick blender, and loosen with a little more hot water if it is too thick.
Warm the pepper flakes in a spoonful of hot oil or butter until the oil turns red, then swirl it over each bowl.
Serve very hot with lemon wedges on the side — the lemon is not optional, it lifts the whole bowl.

💡 نصائح

Squeeze the lemon in at the table, not in the pot — its brightness fades if it boils.
For a richer version, use butter in place of the olive oil for the pepper swirl — but then it is no longer vegan.