Lentil soup is such an ancient and popular dish that it is even mentioned in the Bible. And not just like that, in passing. Lentil stew is of key importance in the holy text. If you believe the "Book of Genesis" (25: 29-34), then Esau gave Jacob his birthright for a bowl of this soup. What kind of dish is this, because of which the ancients decided on great sacrifices?
Lentils are an annual bean plant. Her seeds are small, like peas, and a little flat. Over the centuries of cultivation of this plant, mankind has bred many varieties of lentils. But all of them can be grouped into four main categories. The first is brown lentils. It is also called continental. Soups are mainly prepared from it. The red variety boils very quickly. Mashed soups are made from it. The yellow lentils are ground into flour and bread is made from it. There is also a French variety bred in Puy and named after him. Dark green beans do not fall apart, they retain their shape well and are used in cooking for salads. And finally, the smallest lentils. It is black in color, round, and the size is not larger than eggs. Therefore, the variety is called “beluga”. But enough theory. Let's cook lentil soup. You can find simple and tasty recipes in our article.
Harira
In the culinary processing of products, some peoples have reached the heights of excellence. Who doesn’t know such dishes as Peking duck, Spanish jamon, French foie gras or Viennese pastries. Moroccan cuisine is famous for the Harira lentil soup. Moreover, Muslims themselves (not only in the homeland of the dish, but also from other countries) eat it infrequently, but only during the fast of Ramadan. The secret is simple: the soup is so satisfying that you do not feel hunger from sunrise to evening prayer. And while in boiled lentils only 111 calories. "Harirah" is also full because it contains chickpeas.
A handful of Turkish peas should be soaked in the evening, and then peeled. Pour boiling water over four tomatoes, peel and grind in a blender with onion, three stalks of celery with leaves, cilantro and parsley. Transfer this mashed potatoes to the pot with chickpeas. Moroccan soup is prepared from lentils with meat (anyone except pork). But there is also a vegetarian version of the dish. If you decide to put meat in the soup, you will need 200 grams for the indicated amount of other ingredients. Pour one and a half liters of water into the pan. Cook over low heat until Turkish peas are fully cooked. If the liquid boils too much, add water. We put a handful of red lentils and rice, a tablespoon of tomato paste, peeled and chopped sweet bell pepper (preferably orange), on a generous pinch of turmeric and ground paprika. Cook after boiling another five to ten minutes. We plant several tablespoons of flour with cold water and immediately pour into a pan. Adjust the exact amount of “thickener” to your liking. There is a Harira option, where instead of flour, raw eggs, slightly beaten with a fork, are introduced into the soup.
"Merdzhemek chorbasy"
In the Middle East and North Africa, lentil-based soups are so popular that they have become something of a visiting card of national cuisines, like Ukrainian borsch or Russian cabbage soup. Ancient recipes with the advent of new (overseas) products were overgrown with variations, and now it is difficult to figure out which one is authentic. But the Turkish red lentil soup called Merdzimek Chorbasy was, no doubt, cooked back in the days of the Ottoman sultans. Let's cook the dish that the legendary Roxolana has been relishing for. And translated "Merdzhemek chorbasy" simply: "lentil soup."
Peel and chop the onion and carrot. In a casserole, we melt one hundred grams of butter. Throw the cooked vegetables and saute for five minutes. We need 200 grams of red lentils, the one that quickly boils. We wash it in several waters and also add it to the pot. Pour a liter of cold water, cover and cook on a very low fire for a quarter of an hour after boiling. Salt the soup to taste, add seasonings: a large spoon of dried mint, a small - red hot pepper. Cook for another minute. Cool the soup and grind it in a blender in mashed potatoes. Serve with crackers, pouring a spoonful of lemon juice into a plate. Alternatively, you can make such a soup of lentils with meat, using not cooled water, but a cooled broth.
"Ezo Gelin Chorbashi"
The literal translation of the name of the dish is “Ezo Bride's Soup”. More than a century ago, the girl conquered the heart of the future mother-in-law, boiling this stew of red lentils and bulgur. And since then, all Turkish girls have boiled this soup before the bride. Such a peculiar culinary exams. Just in case (who knows how fate will manage?) We will learn and we will prepare Turkish soup from red lentils and bulgur.
First we need to cook the broth - this is an indispensable condition, the vegetarian "Ezo Gelin Chorbashi" simply does not exist. In boiling water without salt and spices we put the beef meat on the bones, cook, regularly removing the foam, for about an hour and a half. Filter the finished broth through cheesecloth. We measure one and a half to two liters. We put it on the fire again. In a pot in which the lentil soup will be cooked, put a piece of butter. We pass on it a finely chopped purple onion. In a glass, we dilute a tablespoon of tomato paste in boiling broth. Pour this mixture to the onion. Cook for two to three minutes, after which we fill in the remaining broth and salt. Wash a glass of red lentils. If we use a different grade (for example, brown), soak it before cooking. Put the lentils in a pot with onions and tomato paste. Next we send half a glass of bulgur. Mix thoroughly so that the beans and wheat grits do not stick to the bottom of the pot. Cook for ten minutes. Thick soup should be stirred often. We introduce spices: always half a tablespoon of dried mint, optionally thyme, zira, and other similar seasonings. Add the soup, if necessary. We make a very small fire so that the liquid in the saucepan barely gurgles. So cook for another half an hour, until the bulgur and lentils are ready. Let the dish stand under the lid for another 10 minutes. Pour into plates. Sprinkle the coarse chilli.
Vegetarian Soup (Cypriot Recipe)
A rich, long overwhelming feeling of hunger, lentils replaced the once poor meat. And now, vegetarians have taken note of it. Let's see how to make lean lentil soup. In this dish, it is better to use a fiber-rich brown variety. A glass of lentils should be soaked overnight and wiped between the palms in the morning. Then the husk will fall off and you will have yellowish grains. We wash the lentils and fill it with fresh cold water. How much to take fluids? Lentil lentil soup can be very thick like the second. This is how they eat a dish in Cyprus. Water in this case, you need to pour a liter and another glass. But if you want a thinner soup, adjust the amount as you wish. We begin to lay the vegetables. First, two celery stalks cut into pieces (about 70 grams), then slices of large carrots pre-Passer-in in oil. When the lentils in the soup come to the stage of full readiness, put 3-4 tomatoes in the pan. We pass them briefly and throw them into the pan. Salt the soup and cook it for another ten minutes after boiling. And in the end we add spices. In Cyprus, asafoetida is used, a strongly smelling substance extracted from the milky juice of a ferula plant. We can sprinkle the dish with a mixture of peppers, chopped garlic, grated with salt and olive oil. Cook the soup one more minute. Serve with chopped lemon. Each of the diners takes a slice and squeezes it into his plate.
Lentil Soup with Meatballs
This dish is hearty, very warming - a great option for the winter. And cooking it is very simple. First, in a saucepan (but preferably in a casserole), we chop finely chopped onion in butter or olive oil. Following her we send a small carrot, grated or cut in semicircles. When the vegetables get a rosy hue, fill them with five tablespoons of soy sauce. If you are cooking lentil soup for children, you can skip this step. We open a can of tomatoes in our own juice and dump all the contents, together with the liquid, into the casserole. Add water - a liter or a half. Increase the fire. While the soup is cooked, make meatballs. Finely three onion half. Knead it with 200 grams of prepared minced meat and four tablespoons of breadcrumbs. If the mass is not sticky enough to roll the meatballs, add a couple of drops of soy sauce. Dip the meat balls into the boiling soup. Reduce the heat to a minimum and cook for another ten minutes. Rinse half a glass of red lentils. Add to the soup and continue to cook it for another quarter of an hour. Salt and put four branches of thyme. Be sure to add half a teaspoon of sugar - it will balance the acid of tomatoes and emphasize the expressiveness of beans and onions.
Mashed soup
For this dish, only the red variety of lentils is suitable. Any other will not give such a smooth structure. You can cook this lentil soup with chicken, meat or just on the water. If you do not want to make a lean version of the dish, first cook the broth. Remove the meat from the bone, set aside. Strain the broth through cheesecloth. Heat the vegetable oil in a cauldron. Put three peeled but whole garlic cloves in it. Fry until a characteristic odor appears. With a slotted spoon, catch the cloves, and put the finely chopped large onion into the garlic oil. Passerize it to a golden hue. Add the grated carrots. After two to three minutes, put in a pot a soup spoon of tomato paste, a generous pinch of zira. Sprinkle 300 grams of red lentils. Stir so that the beans are slightly enveloped in butter. Pour a liter of boiling broth (or, in the lean version, water). When the liquid begins to gurgle again, reduce the heat to a minimum and cook for about half an hour. Five minutes before cooking, lentil soup with chicken or other meat should be salt, add spices to taste. Cool the contents of the pot and detail it in a blender. Serve sprinkled with red pepper and fresh cilantro.
French Milk Soup
The dish, if you strictly adhere to the recipe, comes out very tender, airy. And it helps to stay slim, because at a low calorie content it is very saturating. How to cook such a diet soup from lentils? We wash two hundred and fifty grams of the yellow variety, fill it with cold water and cook until tender. Shortly before turning off the fire under the pan, salt. For those half an hour until the lentils are cooked, you can make croutons - homemade crackers with the aroma of spices. Cut the crust from half the dried loaf, cut the crumb into cubes, fry in butter. Sprinkle with spices. We filter out the lentils, but we keep the broth. Grind the beans in a blender. The mashed potatoes are returned to the pan and put on a small fire. Pour a glass of hot milk. If the lentil soup still remains very thick, add the broth. Warm up well with a tablespoon of butter. Salt, add black ground pepper and saffron on the tip of the knife. Remove from heat and carefully drive in the raw egg yolk. Stir and serve.
Green Lentil Soup
Since the Puy variety was introduced in France, it has not ceased to be used in salads. But they also make soups out of it. This lentil is cooked for a long time, so the order of bookmarking products with "Puy" is different. First, fry in vegetable oil 250 grams of beef cut into slices, salt it and season it with spices (paprika, coriander, black pepper). Add chopped onion and carrots, stew in meat juice for about a quarter of an hour. We wash the green lentils (120 grams), fill with two liters of cold water, put on fire. After about ten minutes, add two chopped potatoes. And in a skillet with meat we put a soup spoon of tomato paste. You can add a bit of water from a boiling kettle. So put out five minutes. Now transfer the contents of the pan to a pan with lentils and potatoes. Boil with a quarter of an hour. Green lentil soup is ready! Beans in it are not boiled and resembles peas. This dish should be served with chopped dill.
Pea Soup Replacement
Like all legumes, lentils blend perfectly with the taste of smoked meat. But, unlike peas and beans, it does not need to be soaked for a long time. Yes, and it cooks many times faster. So a delicious and satisfying lentil soup with smoked meats will be ready in an hour. Four hundred grams of brisket, balyk (but you can also sausage or "Hunting" sausages) pour three liters of water, boil after boiling for 20 minutes. Let's remove the bones, if any. Cut smoked meat, return to the pan. Add 150 grams of washed brown lentils. After ten minutes, we will put three potatoes and one carrot in a small cube into a pan. We put the pan on the fire, melt two tablespoons of butter. We pass the chopped onion and bell pepper. When the paprika becomes soft, sprinkle roasting with Italian Herbs and Curry spices, transfer from a frying pan to a pot with lentil soup with smoked meats. Scalp a large tomato, remove the skin from it, cut the flesh. Add it to the soup and boil for another three minutes. Salt the dish to taste, pepper it. After a minute, turn off the fire, cover the pan with a lid and let it brew for a quarter of an hour. Serve with chopped fresh herbs, sour cream and crackers.
The order of bookmarking products, if cooked in a slow cooker
Above you read the recipes for lentil soups. Simple and tasty, such dishes can also be prepared in a slow cooker. First, we put vegetables in the bowl - onions, carrots, if required by the recipe, potatoes. Pour in vegetable oil and turn on the "Frying" mode. After seven minutes, add spices, chicken or other meat, tomato paste. Pour washed lentils. Mix. Fill with two liters of water. We turn on the “Soup” mode for 40 minutes.