Green Lentil Soup with Rice (Pirinçli Yeşil Mercimek Çorbası)

Fall is here and I'm as excited about the turning leaves as I am about making soups again. As most of the Turkish green lentil soups, Green Lentil Soup with Rice is also a Central/Eastern Anatolia specialty. It is very simple, yet really delicious one, particularly with a crusty bread.


























1 cup green lentils
1/4 cup rice
1 onion, finely chopped
6 cups of beef or vegetable stock
2 tbsp red pepper or tomato paste
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
black pepper
dill

-Boil 1 cup lentils with 3 cups of water until cooked but firm. Rinse.
-Saute onion in a pot with olive oil until soft.
-Add pepper or tomato paste and stir for another minute. (If you cannot find red pepper paste at Middle Eastern stores, you can spice up your soup by adding 1 tsp of spicy Thai roasted pepper or any Asian pepper paste to tomato paste)
-Add vegetable or beef stock, green lentils, rice, pepper, and salt, and cook on medium to low until rice is cooked.
-Sprinkle dill before you serve.

Red Lentil Soup with Couscous (Kuskuslu Mercimek Çorbası)

Is there anyone who does not like red lentil soup? I haven't met that person yet. Here is one more red lentil soup from central Anatolia. The original recipe requires couscous. Turkish couscous is just like pearl couscous and is prepared like pasta as opposed to North African couscous. However, for this recipe, I used regular, north African small couscous.

1/2 cup red lentil
1/3 cup couscous
1 carrot, peeled and petite diced
1 tsp paprika
2 tbsp butter
salt
6 cups of chicken or vegetable stock

optional
black pepper or
crushed pepper flakes or
green chili powder

-Heat the stock in a pot.
-Once it starts boiling add red lentils and carrot. Cook until lentils are cooked--approximately 20 minutes.
-Add couscous and cook for another 10 minutes.
-Turn it off and add salt.
-In a small frying pan heat butter. Add paprika and let it sizzle for 10-15 seconds.
-Serve the soup in bowls and pour the butter+paprika on top of each.