Rustic Red Lentil Soup (Mahluta Corbasi)

threeovens's Note:

This soup is served in a little Turkish storefront take out place near my home. I have not found red lentils yet, so I use regular dried lentils (brown) from my grocery store. Also please note, the longer the crushed red pepper flakes are cooked, the hotter and spicier the soup will be, so use your judgment!

• Total Time: 1 hrs 25 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 cup dried red lentils, washed, drained (or use brown lentils)
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons butter or 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups water
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 6 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (see note in description)
• salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano or 1 tablespoon fresh oregano

Directions:

1. Sauté onion in butter over medium heat for 2 minutes until softened, not browned. Add garlic and sauté an additional minute. Add lentils and 2 cups water; stir. Cover, turn heat down to medium low and cook 30 minutes until lentils are almost tender and water has almost cooked out. Add the chicken broth, tomato paste, cumin, salt and pepper. Cook another 30 minutes.
2. Puree soup with an immersion blender or use a food processor or stand blender. Strain into pot and add crushed red pepper flakes and oregano; cook 10 minutes or longer to desired degree of spiciness and heat. Soup will become more spicy and hotter the longer you cook the red pepper flakes. Add water if soup is too thick (for your taste, I like it relatively thin).

Reviews

[Chef #1074076]

Delicious and easy! Use red lentils if you can find them in a middle eastern or ethnic market, they are softer and have a nice flavor. Thank you for sharing!

[KristinV]

I can't believe there hasn't been a review on this soup so far during the ZWT!! People don't know what they are missing! This was VERY tasty and VERY quick to put together! I went with the olive oil option and used a vegetable broth to make it vegan!! The one change I made was to garnish it with fresh coriander. I will be making this one often. Made for ZWT 6 Family Picks (Voracious Vagabonds)