Turkish Red Lentil Soup (Mercimek çorbası)
Overview
Mercimek çorbası is the everyday soup of Türkiye, served in homes, school canteens and roadside lokantas from breakfast until late at night. Split red lentils cook down quickly with onion and carrot until they collapse, and the pot is then blended into a smooth, velvety purée with a warm orange colour. Cumin and a little tomato or pepper paste give it depth, while a squeeze of lemon at the table lifts the whole bowl. Many cooks finish it with a spoon of sizzling butter or oil coloured with red pepper flakes. Cheap, filling and ready in about forty minutes, it is often the first soup Turkish children learn to love. Our recipe uses olive oil, which keeps it fully plant-based.
History
Lentils are among the oldest cultivated crops of the Fertile Crescent, a region that includes parts of today's south-eastern Türkiye, and lentil soups have been cooked across Anatolia for a very long time. Ottoman kitchens had many lentil dishes, and simple lentil soups were cheap, filling food for ordinary people. The smooth, blended red lentil version is the one that became a fixture of Turkish restaurants, canteens and homes in modern times, and close relatives are cooked across the Middle East.
Main ingredients
Red lentils, onion, carrot, tomato paste, cumin, lemon. The soup is built on vegetable stock or water and is usually served hot. Diet: vegan; usually gluten-free.
Explore: Lentil soups · Tomato soups · More soups from Türkiye
Recipe
Method
- 15 min
Soften the onion and carrot in 2 tbsp olive oil for 5 minutes.
- 21 min
Stir in the paste and cumin and cook for 1 minute.
- 325 min
Add the lentils and stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 25 minutes until very soft.
- 4
Blend until smooth, season with salt and thin with water if needed.
- 5
Warm the remaining oil with the chilli flakes and drizzle over each bowl; serve with lemon.
- ✓
Serve. About 40 min from start to bowl.
Pictures
Sources
Description, history and recipe written by SoupWiki and checked against the sources above. Calories and times are rough estimates.
