Turkish Meal Mondays: Mercimek Çorbası (Lentil Soup)

Turkish Meal Mondays are a glimpse into the food we enjoy here in Turkey, accompanied by a recipe.  Mondays are one of our favourite days, because they're Market Days. Ever since our first market day a year and a half ago we have only missed two, due to torrential down pour a few weeks ago.  Our trips to the market will continue to focus on selecting fresh and delish produce to use in our weekly Turkish recipes.  Get ready... This blog just became appealing to foodies.

This week the recipe is for one of my favorite soups here in Turkey. There are 2 colors of lentils, green and red. I used green lentils, but after I found out that I was supposed to use the red ones. When I asked how to make this I got the typical "a little of this, a little of that..." type recipe, but when you can't read the minds of the people telling you mistakes happen. The recipe didn't call for celery root, but I used it anyway...

One Potato, Carrots, one onion and celery root (I don't actually use the celery).

I grated the carrots and chopped everything else .

First I sautéed the chopped veggies until they are soft. Then I added about 3 cups of chicken broth and the lentils. I simmered this for about 30 min until the lentils were soft.

The reason it didn't taste authentic...

After everything is soft and ready I add some salt and pepper to taste and then I used our hand blender to mix it all up.

One hand on the camera, one hand on the mixer.

I served it with some buttered toast. Turkish people like to add lemon to their soups. We also added a pomegranate sauce that they use on many things (basically it's a reduction sauce).

Afiyet Olsun!