Lentil soup - East and West in one plate

You can talk for a long time about the benefits of lentils for health. The most beautiful and popular dish, cooked from it, is a lentil soup. And it is the secrets of its preparation that we will reveal below.

Classic lentil soup, it's a soup

Now many culinary publications offer a choice of soups made of lentils. But still there is a classic recipe, for the preparation of which you will need the simplest set of products, namely:

• Lentils - one glass, or 200 grams;
• Garlic - 3 cloves;
• Herbs - if the season, it is better fresh (parsley, marjoram, dill), if not - it is better to make a collection of dried ones;
• Water - 4 glasses, or liter;
• Salt and vinegar.

The cooking process is very simple. It is enough to carefully sort, wash and dry the lentils with a towel. Then put it in a saucepan and add water. For those who prefer to prepare soups in a multivark, the proportions of water and lentils should be changed. Pour it over: one piece of lentils into three parts of water.

Cook it until soft. Unlike their relatives (peas and beans), it is prepared much faster. In this case, it takes about 50 minutes. And for the multivarker, the "Quenching" mode should be preferred - one hour. When the lentils are ready, add the garlic to it. To make soup more piquant flavor and taste, garlic should be finely chopped or passed through a press. After this lentil soup season with herbs and salt with vinegar. The classic lentil soup is ready.

It is worth noting that most recipes offer to include in this soup tomatoes, ground pepper and cumin. In addition, to give it a softer flavor, you can add a little butter.

Lentil soup puree

From the classic soup of lentils differs its "fellow" - soup-mashed potatoes. The composition of its ingredients is much broader and includes:

• Lentils - 1 glass;
• Red bell pepper, large tomato and the same bulb;
• 5 glasses of water;
• Spices - salt and red (this is important) ground pepper;
• Any preferred smoked meat, but best of all sausages.

In this recipe, the beginning of cooking is associated with frying. To do this, all vegetables are cleaned and cut into small slices. After a well-heated frying pan with the addition of vegetable oil, they are fried to a light golden color. Once the vegetables have reached the required state, all lentils are sent to them. If you paid attention, then the color of vegetables and spices is red, so lentils are best preferred to the same shade, but this point is not fundamental. Cooking vegetables with lentils should be only 15 minutes, adding every three to four minutes on a spoonful of water.

Then the entire mixture must be transferred to a pan and pour the remaining water. The cooking process takes the same amount of time as frying.

Then, using a blender, it is necessary to grind lentil soup in puree, add spices, and when serving on the table - decorate with chopped smoked products.

Tip : if there is no blender, you can grind the resulting dish with a sieve. The process is certainly laborious, but the result is worth it.

Turkish lentil soup

But in Turkey this soup is elevated to the rank of the most beloved in cold weather. It is served for the holidays and even for the wedding table. There are many options for cooking, but here is the recipe for Merchi.

Turkish lentil soup is made from:

• Red lentils - one glass;
• Onions (2 heads), one carrot and one potato;
• Spices - salt, hot red pepper and three cloves of garlic;
• Three tablespoons of tomato paste (but it is better to replace the puree from 4 tomatoes);
• 1.5 liters of water.

The cooking process is as follows: in the pan fry the diced onions, then add to it in strict sequence: chopped garlic, hot pepper and grated carrots. Allow the mixture to steep for five minutes and add the tomato paste, lentils. While mixing, pour a glass of water. Once the lentil mixture has absorbed water, add the remaining amount of liquid and chopped potatoes. Cook until ready for lentils.

Once the soup is cooked, grind it with a blender. The resulting mixture should be sent again to boil for fifteen minutes. And the lentil soup-puree, executed according to the Turkish recipe, is ready.

Bon Appetit!