Turkish Red Lentil Soup Recipe: Easy & Homemade

This Turkish red lentil soup (mercimek çorbası) is the smooth, velvety bowl you get in almost every Istanbul lokanta. You simmer red lentils with carrot, potato, onion and garlic until soft, blend everything to a puree, then stir in a quick sauce of oil, flour and tomato paste for color and depth.

This Turkish red lentil soup recipe is nutritious, healthy, and comforting, especially during the colder fall and winter months. If you want to see how it fits into the wider table, this soup is a staple alongside the other classics in our guide to Turkish soups and their recipes, and it shows up on nearly every menu in our roundup of the best soup in Istanbul.

Lentil soup recipe:

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 cup red lentils
• 1 carrot
• 1 potato
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 6 cups lamb or chicken stock or hot water

For the sauce

• 3 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Method

1. First, take any discoloured lentils from the mix. Wash your red lentils thoroughly with water until the water runs clear, and drain.
2. Peel the onion, carrot, potato and garlic and slice them into small pieces.
3. In a large pot add your lentils, chopped vegetables and water (or stock). Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer and cook for 35-40 minutes or until lentils are soft.
4. Once your lentils are soft, blend it into a puree with a stick/immersion blender. (You can also do this little by little with a stand blender, but be careful of the hot soup in the blender.) If the consistency is too thick, add a little hot water.
5. To make the sauce: Heat the sunflower oil in a small pan. Once hot, add the flour and cook until a light brown color. Then add the tomato paste, salt and pepper.
6. To your sauce mix, add 3 ladles of your pureed soup mix to dilute it. Then add the diluted sauce into your soup and mix it through.
7. Continue to cook your soup over low heat for another 3-5 minutes. Then, it’s ready to serve.

For more home cooking like this, browse our full set of Turkish recipes, or read up on the dishes that define Turkish cuisine before your trip.

If you would rather taste the real thing in Istanbul, our Taste of Two Continents food tour walks you from the Spice Market breakfast across the Bosphorus by ferry to Kadıköy. We have run food tours since 2013, hosting more than 50,000 guests with a 4.95 out of 5 rating from over 7,800 reviews, and we keep groups to a maximum of 10.