Description
Turkish yellow lentil soup is the perfect fall soup to cozy up with if you need something quick and easy! This silky smooth soup is drizzled with a spicy buttery sauce and a good squeeze of lemon juice.
Ingredients
Scale
For the soup:
- 250g split yellow lentils (sarı mercimek) (1 ½ cups)
- 30g butter (2 tbsp)
- 1 yellow onion
- 1 garlic clove
- 15g all-purpose flour (1 ½ tbsp)
- 950ml water (4 cups), or you can use vegetables/beef/chicken stock (in this case put less salt)
- 2 tsp fine sea salt
To serve:
- 30g butter (2 tbsp)
- 1 tsp Turkish kırmızı toz biber, or use your preferred red chili powder
- 1 lemon, quartered
- soft white bread
Instructions
- Wash the lentils. Place the lentils in a strainer and rinse well under cold running water for 1 min, rubbing the lentils between your fingers. Set aside and leave to drain in the strainer while you get on with the rest.
- Make the soup. Peel and roughly chop the onion and garlic clove. Melt the butter in a deep non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and garlic. Cook for 10 min stirring from time to time with a wooden spoon. Add the flour and stir thoroughly. Add the drained lentils and mix well. Pour the water (or stock) and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover the pan with a lid, lower the heat to medium-low and cook for 20 min. The lentils should be totally soft and broken down by then. Remove the pan from the heat and blend the soup with an immersion blender. Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning accordingly. Return the pan to low heat while you make the sauce.
- Make the sauce. Melt the butter in a small frying pan over medium-low heat. Add the chili powder, and cook for 30 seconds while stirring constantly, then remove from the heat. Chili powder can burn pretty quickly (it turns dark and bitter) so stay vigilant while you make the sauce if you don’t want to have to start over.
- Serve. Ladle the soup into bowls, drizzle the sauce over the soup and serve immediately with wedges of lemon and big slices of fluffy white bread.
Notes
The soup will thicken as it cools down. Gently heat it over medium-low heat and the consistency will turn back to normal. You can also stir in a little bit of just-boiled water to thin it down.
Turkish yellow soup will keep for up to 3 days stored in the fridge in an airtight container.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 big bowl
- Calories: 708
Keywords: vegetarian fall soup, cooking yellow lentils, easy soups to make