Name: Mercimek çorbası (Turkish red lentil soup)
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients: 2 tbsp olive or sunflower oil; 1 onion, chopped; 1 carrot (about 100 g), peeled and chopped; 1 small floury potato (about 150 g), peeled and diced; 1 tbsp tomato paste; 1 tbsp Turkish red pepper paste (biber salçası), mild or hot; 200 g red lentils, rinsed until the water runs clear; 1 tsp ground cumin; 1.3 l hot water, plus more to loosen; 1½ tsp salt, plus more to taste; ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper; 30 g butter; 1 tsp pul biber (Turkish red pepper flakes); 1 tsp dried mint; 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Mercimek çorbası (Turkish red lentil soup)

Red lentils, onion, carrot and potato simmered and blended silky, then topped with butter sizzled with chilli flakes and dried mint. Turkey's everyday soup.

By the Soupmap Culinary Team

Prep: 15 min
Cook: 45 min
Total: 1 hr 5 min
Effort: Easy
Serves: 4

Broth richness 5/10

Spice 4/10

Comfort 8/10

Ratings by the Soupmap Culinary Team, not readers.

Method

Cook the soup

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, for 6–8 minutes, until soft, translucent and just colouring at the edges. Add the carrot and potato and cook for 3 minutes more.
Stir in the tomato paste and pepper paste and cook for 1–2 minutes, until they darken slightly and smell sweet rather than raw.
Add the lentils, cumin, hot water and salt and bring to a boil. Skim off the foam, then lower the heat and simmer, partly covered, for 25–30 minutes, stirring now and then so nothing catches, until the lentils have fallen apart and a piece of potato crushes against the side of the pan with no resistance.

Blend and season

Blend until completely smooth with a stick blender, or in batches in a jug blender (fill it no more than half full and hold the lid down with a folded tea towel, as hot soup expands). For an extra-fine texture, push it through a sieve afterwards.
Return the soup to the pan over low heat. Loosen with hot water if needed: it should pour easily from the ladle, about as thick as single (light) cream. Add the black pepper, then taste and add more salt until the lentil flavour comes through clearly. Keep it warm while you make the butter.

Finish

Melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat until it foams and smells nutty, about 2 minutes. Take the pan off the heat, add the pul biber and mint and swirl for 10–15 seconds, until the butter turns brick red. Don't put it back on the heat: the pepper burns in seconds and turns bitter.
Ladle the soup into bowls, spoon the red butter over the top and serve with lemon wedges for squeezing.

Swaps

Cooking for coeliac disease or an allergy? Check every label: the notes below say which ones matter.

Gluten-free

Already gluten-free as written. Check the labels on the pepper paste and ground spices, and pick over the lentils before rinsing: they can carry the odd stray grain of wheat or barley.
Skip the flour in the Extra-velvety variation. Cooking the lentils until they've completely collapsed, then pushing the soup through a sieve, gives a similar silkiness.

Plant-based

Use oil instead of butter, as in Variations: warm 3 tbsp olive oil, take it off the heat and swirl in the pul biber and mint for 10 seconds. Made with water, the soup is then vegan. You lose the butter's nutty note, and the topping tastes fruitier and a little lighter.

High-protein

Add 100 g more red lentils (300 g in all) with about 400 ml more hot water, then loosen to the usual pouring thickness and season again at the end: about 6 g more protein per bowl.
Top each bowl with 50 g thick strained yoghurt beside the butter: about 5 g protein, and a cool tang against the chilli.

Tips

Rinse the lentils well. It washes off the surface starch and dust that make the pot foam up and boil over, and gives a cleaner-tasting soup.

Cook until everything has truly collapsed. Undercooked lentils and potato blend grainy, not silky; when a lentil has lost all its shape, you're there.

No biber salçası? Use another 1/2 tbsp tomato paste and 1 tsp sweet paprika, with a pinch of chilli flakes if you like heat. For pul biber, Aleppo-style pepper is very close; otherwise mix 3/4 tsp sweet paprika with 1/4 tsp chilli flakes, and add it to the butter for no more than a few seconds.

The soup thickens as it stands, even in the 10 minutes before serving. Keep a kettle of hot water nearby and adjust right before you ladle it out.

Season with the lemon in mind. Squeeze a little into a spoonful and taste before you decide it needs more salt.

Variations

Oil instead of butter (vegan): warm 3 tbsp olive oil in the small pan until it shimmers, then take it off the heat and add the pul biber and mint for 10 seconds. With water rather than stock, the whole soup is then vegan and dairy-free.

With stock: use chicken stock instead of water for a rounder soup (it's then no longer vegetarian).

Extra-velvety: many Turkish cooks stir 1 tbsp plain flour into the onion with the pastes in step 2. The soup is then no longer gluten-free.

Mercimek çorbası (Turkish red lentil soup)

Ingredients

Soup

Sizzling butter

To serve