Turkish Lentil Soup – Mercimek Corbasi

Tangy and filling lentil soup under 30 minutes with pantry staple ingredients.

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Hello HTS Community

Turkish red lentil soup or locally called as Mercimek Corbasi, is one of the most popular soups in Turkish cuisine. Its a simple soup made with handful of ingredients and is generally served as an appetizer or light evening meal.

It is made with red lentils (masoor dal), carrots, onion, tomato, aleppo pepper (pul biber), black pepper and cumin, and can be prepared under 30 minutes. This rich soup has a velvety texture and is packed with nutrition, best served with a squeeze of lemon on top.

Turkish cuisine offers so many delicious recipes, that are usually easy to make with regular pantry ingredients. You can try recipes like Turkish Guvec (Vegetable Casserole) and Turkish Revani (Orange syrup cake). While this is a Turkish recipe, it does have similarities with Indian dal, but the spice mix makes all the difference. Tomato paste is one of the ingredients that is mostly used in Turkish food, but since it is not available locally in India, I chose to use tomatoes in the soup.

Red lentils are fairly used in Turkish cuisine because they cook up fast and are quite versatile. The nutritional value is another factor that this soup is so filling and no one would say no. Red lentils are low in carbs and rich in proteins, Vitamin B and fibre, so always better to keep some in pantry. Mercimek corbasi is a vegan and gluten free soup and can be made as a last minute weeknight dinner.

Ingredients you will need:

• Red lentils (masoor dal)- 1 cup
• Olive oil- 1 tablespoon
• Onion- 1 medium, chopped
• Tomatoes- 2 small, chopped
• Carrots- 2 small or 1 medium, diced
• Turmeric- 1/4 teaspoon
• Aleppo pepper- 1 teaspoon (substitute with kashmiri mirch)
• Black pepper powder- 1/2 teaspoon
• Cumin powder- 1 teaspoon
• Salt- to taste
• Water- 4 cups
• Lemon- 1

Steps to make lentil soup:

• If you have time, wash dal twice and soak for 10-15 minutes. If not, then wash it twice and start with the next step.
• In a pot or pressure cooker, heat olive oil and cook onions for a minute. Then add tomatoes, salt and turmeric powder and cook for another minute.
• To this add carrots and other dry spices and mix. Cook for a minute and add red lentils and 4 cups of water. Close the pressure cooker and cook for 15 minutes on medium heat or 3 whistles. Let the pressure release slowly before opening. If cooking in a pot, cover the pot and let cook for 20 minutes on medium heat, after that remove the lid and cook for another 5 minutes.

• At this stage, we need to blend the soup. If you have an immersion blender, go ahead and blend in the pot itself. Else, transfer soup in a mixer jar and blend for 5 seconds max.
• Adjust thickness of the soup and salt by tasting. Serve this velvety soup with a good squeeze of lemon.

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