Red Lentil Soup

I have shopped in the Turkish Food Supply shop and bought some red lentil to cook one of my favorite soups in the weekend: red lentil soup. This soup has great taste and it is quite healthy.

Lentil soup refers to a variety of vegetarian and meat soups made from lentils. The soup may consist of green, brown, red, yellow or black lentils, with or without the husk. Dehulled yellow and red lentils disintegrate in cooking, making a thick soup.[1]

If you want to try something different and tasty here is how you can cook this dish:

You need 1 cup red lentil. I bought it from the Turkish supply store but you can find it in Mustafa or in some super markets. You need to wash 1 cup of lentil to prepare for cooking. You also need,

• 1 medium size onion (chopped)
  
• 1 carrot (finely grated)
  
• 2 table spoon of olive oil
  
• 1 table spoon of wheat flour
  
• 2 Knorr Bouillon (if you want to prepare the dish vegetarian skip this ingredient)
  
• 1.5 liters of boiled water

Red Lentil Soup

• I have boiled the water in the Kettle.
  
• I have started cooking by heating the cooker with medium to maximum fire and then adding 2 table spoons of olive oil to the cooker.
  
•  After the oil is also heated I have added the chopped onion and stir it until the onions are soft and pinkish.
  
• Then I have added 1 table spoon of wheat flour and stir 2-3 times while cooking the onions.
  
• Then I have added carrot and 2 Knorr Bouillon tablets and continued to stir for 2-3 minutes more. If you want to keep the dish vegetarian, you can cook without Bouillons. It is perfectly fine.
  
• Then I have added the washed lentils and continued to stir 2-3 minutes more.
  
• At the end I have added the boiled water and salt and let the water boil again. Once the water started to boil, I have closed the cooker’s cover and set the fire to minimum. I have opened the cover and stirred every 10 minutes and cooked it for 35 – 40 minutes until the lentils are very soft and crushed.
  
• After turning off the fire, the dish can be served as it is but there is one more step you should do to perfect the dish.  Smoothen the soup with a blender. A hand blender is better but I used a standing blender. Once you do this, everything will be perfectly blended to a yellow-orange colored creamy soup.
  
• It is better served with a sliced lemon (which can be squeezed into the soup before eating) and bread.

[1] - Lentil soup