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Easy Turkish Red Lentil Soup with carrots, turkish spices, mint. Easy weeknight meal. Vegan Gluten-free Soyfree Recipe.Jump to Recipe
Soups are a great appetizer or a meal by itself served with a salad or flatbread. And Red lentils are a definite favorite in the house. Light, quick and versatile. No waiting for the beans to soak and cook.
Onions and garlic are cooked until translucent. Then the carrots and other veggies, spices are added and toasted, hen mint, tomato, lentils and water or broth and done. Once the lentils are cooked, blend the soup carefully and serve with croutons, cucumber, flatbread or a side salad. The soup tastes amazing unblended as well and can be served so.
More Soups from the blog
- Mushroom Chickpea Soup
- Curried butternut squash soup
- Chard Mushroom Shallot Pasta soup
- Chipotle corn Chowder
- Moroccan lentil soup
- Cream of Mushroom Soup
This recipe is inspired by a mix of recipes from allrecipes.com and other sites and have evolved based on my personal preference.
Cook the onions, garlic until translucent. Add the carrots, spices and mix in. Add lentils and water and cook until lentils are tender.
Serve the soup as is, or blend and serve.
Turkish Red Lentil Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tsp oil
- 3/4 cup onion, chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1/3 cup chopped carrots, 4 baby carrot or 1 medium carrot
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp or more black pepper
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tomato chopped
- 1-2 tbsp tomato paste or ketchup
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh mint leaves, or use 1/2 tsp dried mint
- 1/2 cup red lentils
- 2 1/2 cups to 3 water or vegetable broth
- 1/2-3/4 tsp salt or more salt
- red pepper flakes, mint, lemon juice and olive oil for garnish
Instructions
- Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, garlic and pinch of salt and cook until translucent. 5 minutes.
- Add the carrots and the spices and mix well. You can also add in a good pinch of cinnamon for variation. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the tomato, tomato ketchup and mint and mix and cook for 2 minutes. You can add some veggies and greens veggies at this point.
- Add the red lentils, water and salt and mix. Partially cover and cook for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to simmer for a few more minutes until the lentils are tender to preference. Taste and adjust salt and spice and mix in. Add more water if needed.
- Cool slightly and blend with an immersion blender or regular blender(carefully). Serve in bowls with a garnish pepper flakes, lemon juice, a few drops of olive oil and chopped fresh mint(optional). Serve with croutons or flatbread of choice or a side salad.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Accidentally used smoked paprika, but tasted so good!
I made this tonight. My husband and I loved it! I’m not yet that versed in converting recipes to the Instant Pot. Do you have any suggestions for this recipe? Thanks again!
Saute everything in saute mode and then pressure cook for 3 minutes, natural release
Thank you!
Very tasty soup! I doubled the recipe, but I’m going to have to invest in a bigger pot so I can make a lot more for the next day. I didn’t put mint in it as I’m really not a fan and I didn’t have any at home. The rest of the ingredients are things I had on hand which made it perfect and cheap.
Thanks!
Hi! I can’t wait to try this one. I’m going to make it for 6 servings and was going to triple the ingredients but thought I’d reach out to you first to see if you had any notes/thoughts on doing so. 🙂 Thank you!
Generally when increasing quantity in soups, most everything doubles/triples, except water and heat. Use a bit less water and less heat than exact triple. Adjust those later by taste and consistency preference.
Thank you for your quick and helpful response. Your recipes are so very delicious, and you’re always the first place we look for vegan food. Thank you!
This is delicious! Honestly one of the best soups I’ve ever had. Thank you so much!
Awesome!
ahhhh this recipe. so glad I found it and of course, you, Richa!!
tonite I used as a stew, served in a small bowl to dip flatbread/warm flour tortilla in after tearing them in half and stuffing them with steamed potato and green beans. fantastic combination and next time I am adding peas and onions to perfect it!
Amazing!
This is my favourite soup! If I may just add, my Turkish mum-in-law puts a handful of raw white rice and potatoes to cook with the rest of the ingredients, it’s really a hearty soup in the winter. And just before serving, she’ll heat up few spoonful of olive oil, add in the dried mint when the oil is warm, and pour this in the centre of the soup already in the bowls/plates. It’s heavenly yummy 🙂
Thanks for the notes! the garnish sounds perfect. I will add it to the recipe options