Read a story in the paper today about the husband-wife team that leads BioNTech, the company that developed the first working vaccine, he's a Turkish immigrant to Germany, she's the daughter of Turkish immigrants.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/business/biontech-covid-vaccine.html
Clearly, we all in this world owe these people a debt of gratitude that's hard to even imagine but I thought in my little way, I'd post my flat out favorite Turkish recipe, it's just a simple little soup. I've probably made this as much as anything else in my repertoire. Sometimes I tell people it's Lebanese, sometimes Syrian, but I first started making it after I ate it in a Turkish restaurant in Boston and bought their cookbook. There's fancier Turkish food, there's more complicated Turkish food, but nothing I've found is more soulful Turkish food.
Anybody else make turkish food? Love to keep it going, post your recipes!
Without further ado, here you go:
Turkish Red Lentil Soup
Serves easily 8, freezes great
Flavor Base
Sweat two medium onions and three cloves of garlic in 2 Tbsp of Olive Oil and 2 Tbsp of butter over medium low heat. Salt it. Let them soften but not color
Add 3-4 Tbsp mild Paprika, 1 tsp Turkish red pepper flakes (they're not that hot, if using italian, halve it) and saute for a minute.
Add a 14 oz can of tomatoes that you chopped fine and eliminated the seeds, along with the juice from the can. Saute that for a minute too.
Lentils
Add 2 cups Red Lentils, 3 cups of chicken stock and 6 cups of water to the pot. Throw in 1/3 cup of rice.
Let cook 20-30 minutes till the lentils and rice cook.
Add more salt
After add 1 1/2 Tbsp of dried mint and 1/4 cup of fine bulgur (optional) and let it cook ten minutes more.
Garnish
Squeeze some lemon over it as you serve. If you want you can saute some dried mint in butter with some paprika and drizzle this on the top.
Nod to Sultan's Kitchen in Boston for this one.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/business/biontech-covid-vaccine.html
Clearly, we all in this world owe these people a debt of gratitude that's hard to even imagine but I thought in my little way, I'd post my flat out favorite Turkish recipe, it's just a simple little soup. I've probably made this as much as anything else in my repertoire. Sometimes I tell people it's Lebanese, sometimes Syrian, but I first started making it after I ate it in a Turkish restaurant in Boston and bought their cookbook. There's fancier Turkish food, there's more complicated Turkish food, but nothing I've found is more soulful Turkish food.
Anybody else make turkish food? Love to keep it going, post your recipes!
Without further ado, here you go:
Turkish Red Lentil Soup
Serves easily 8, freezes great
Flavor Base
Sweat two medium onions and three cloves of garlic in 2 Tbsp of Olive Oil and 2 Tbsp of butter over medium low heat. Salt it. Let them soften but not color
Add 3-4 Tbsp mild Paprika, 1 tsp Turkish red pepper flakes (they're not that hot, if using italian, halve it) and saute for a minute.
Add a 14 oz can of tomatoes that you chopped fine and eliminated the seeds, along with the juice from the can. Saute that for a minute too.
Lentils
Add 2 cups Red Lentils, 3 cups of chicken stock and 6 cups of water to the pot. Throw in 1/3 cup of rice.
Let cook 20-30 minutes till the lentils and rice cook.
Add more salt
After add 1 1/2 Tbsp of dried mint and 1/4 cup of fine bulgur (optional) and let it cook ten minutes more.
Garnish
Squeeze some lemon over it as you serve. If you want you can saute some dried mint in butter with some paprika and drizzle this on the top.
Nod to Sultan's Kitchen in Boston for this one.
