Ezogelin Çorbası (Ezogelin Soup Recipe)

Ezogelin Çorbası, or Ezogelin Soup, is a delicious Turkish dish made with red lentils, bulgur and rice, finished with dried mint and chili flakes, or pul biber. It needs about twenty minutes of hands-on work. A spoonful of red pepper paste does most of the work on flavor.

Ezogelin is also one of the few Turkish dishes with its own official traditional product registration, granted in 2020 to the Gaziantep town it comes from. What sets it apart from Turkish Red Lentil Soup is the texture. It should stay grainy, with the bulgur and rice still there in every spoonful.

Jump to:

• Why This Recipe Works?
• Who Was Ezo Gelin?
• Ingredients You'll Need
• Ezogelin Çorbası - Ezogelin Soup
• Recipe Tips From the Chef
• Recipe Variations
• Serving Suggestions
• Storage Instructions
• Make Ahead
• Recipe FAQs
• Related Recipes
• Ezogelin Çorbası (Ezogelin Soup Recipe)

Ezogelin Çorbası is one of the most popular soups in Turkey. If you have ever been to a Turkish restaurant, the chances are you have already come across this Turkish lentil and bulgur soup.

It is typically served with Turkish flatbreads such as Bazlama or Pita Bread Recipe, butter and chili sauce, and lemon wedges on the side.

Traditionally in Turkey, a meal starts with soup. And this lightly spiced soup is definitely one of the most popular options and the nation's favorite!

It's also common to have this soup in the morning for breakfast, and it is a popular hangover cure for many.

Why This Recipe Works?

• Everything in it comes from the store cupboard, so you can make it without a shopping trip.

• Filling enough for dinner with bread and a salad on the side. You can also serve a small bowl first, the way it is done in Turkey.

• The red lentils break down on their own and thicken the soup. There is no cream in it at all.

• High in protein and fiber from the lentils. It happens to be meat free too.

• Step by step photos for every stage, so you can see exactly what it should look like.

Who Was Ezo Gelin?

The soup takes its name from a real woman. Zöhre Bozgeyik was born in 1909 in the village of Uruş, now called Dokuzyol, in the Oğuzeli district of Gaziantep. Ezo was the local pet form of her name, and gelin means bride, so the name translates as Ezo the bride.

Her life was a hard one. Her first marriage was arranged through berdel, a sister exchange between two families. It ended within about two years. She married again in 1936, this time to a cousin who lived across the border in Syria.

She spent the rest of her life there and died of tuberculosis in the 1950s. Most Turkish sources give 18 March 1956, though some researchers argue for 1952. She asked to be buried facing Turkey. Her remains were brought back to her village in 1999.

Folk songs and three films made her a household name. The soup was attached to her story afterwards, once the first film came out in the mid 1950s. So the honest version is that Ezo Gelin did not invent this soup. It was named for her after she became famous. It has carried her name ever since.

Ingredients You'll Need

Please scroll down to the recipe card below for the full ingredients list with measurements, complete recipe method, recipe notes, and nutritional information.

• Bulgur - Made from cracked parboiled wheat and sold in fine, medium, coarse and extra coarse grinds. Coarse is best here, since it holds its shape in the finished soup.

• Red lentils - These lentils are split and cook quickly. They’re great for making soup or dal and have a sweet and nutty flavor. They are widely used in Turkish cooking.

• Rice - It gives a creamy texture to the soup. Use any type of short-grain rice you have in your cupboard.

• Garlic - Fresh garlic is a great flavoring that adds sweetness and nuttiness to dishes. You can use garlic powder or granules instead although I strongly suggest using fresh ones. Peel and roughly chop before adding to the soup.

• Tomato paste - It is a staple of Turkish cooking. It adds an umami flavor to the dish as well as a bright red color. Any supermarket tomato paste works here.

• Red pepper paste - A rich paste made from red peppers. It comes as tatlı, which is mild, or acı, which is hot. Either works here, just go easy on the salt. Make your own Biber Salçası - Turkish Red Pepper Paste or buy it from Turkish shops.

• Vegetable stock or Chicken Bone Broth - Homemade or good quality stock makes a real difference. Use Basic Homemade Vegetable Stock to keep it vegan.

Ezogelin Çorbası - Ezogelin Soup

Prepare the Soup Base

Heat a saucepan on medium heat and sauté the onions with olive oil until soft. Add garlic and sauté for a few minutes. Garlic burns quickly so make sure you stir continuously after adding the garlic.

Stir in the tomato and pepper taste and cook for a few minutes. You can omit the pepper paste and add an extra ½ tbsp tomato paste if you don't have it in your fridge but I like the distinctive taste of it in this soup.

Add red lentils along with the black pepper, chili flakes, and salt. Cook for a few minutes then add the bulgur and rice.

Cook the Soup

Pour in the vegetable stock or chicken stock and stir well to combine. Bring it to a boil and turn the heat down, simmer gently with the lid off for about 35 to 40 minutes until the legumes are softened.

Blitz

Remove the pan from the heat and then blitz the soup with a stick blender. The consistency of the soup is not meant to be smooth, therefore do not over-blitz it. It should have granules of cooked legumes.

If the consistency of the soup seems too thick, add more liquid and boil for another minute until combined. If the soup is too thick, then boil it for another 5-10 minutes to reduce the liquid.

Garnish and Serve

To prepare the garnish, melt the butter (or olive oil) in a small saucepan and add the chili or paprika and mint. Gently sauté for a few minutes, then pour in the soup.

Give it a good stir and serve in bowls with a piece of nice crusty bread and a lemon wedge on the side. A bit of lemon juice in this soup makes a huge difference, and adds a great flavor!

Recipe Tips From the Chef

• Adjust the consistency at the end. If it is too thin, simmer it a few minutes longer. If it is too thick, add hot water a little at a time rather than cold.

• Dried mint is the one that matters here. Fresh mint tastes completely different and will not give you the flavor people expect.

• Give the mint and pepper flakes 30 to 40 seconds in the hot fat, no longer. Dried mint scorches quickly and turns bitter once it does.

• Fry the tomato paste in the fat for a minute before any liquid goes in. Raw paste tastes flat and slightly metallic.

• Add the lemon juice at the end, off the heat. Acid added early stops the lentils softening properly.

• Keep the heat low once the soup comes up to a boil and stir it now and then. Lentils catch on the bottom of the pan easily.

• Salt lightly at the start and adjust at the end. The soup reduces as it cooks. Pepper paste and stock both bring their own salt too.

• Parboil the rice and bulgur separately, drain them, then stir them in near the end. This is the trick restaurant kitchens use. It gives you a velvety base with the grains still whole.

• Stir with a balloon whisk rather than a spoon. A whisk breaks the lentils down into the soup without wrecking the bulgur and rice.

• For a restaurant finish, whisk 1 tablespoon of butter, 1 tablespoon of flour and 1 ½ tablespoons of tomato paste into a cup of warm water. Stir that through the soup at the end.

• Dice the onion finely rather than grating it. Grated onion makes the soup taste watery.

• Do not soak the lentils first. Soaking washes away the starch that binds the soup. A soaked batch is much more likely to separate as it stands.

Recipe Variations

• Tavuklu ezogelin. Poach half a chicken breast, shred it, and stir it through at the end. This turns the soup into a full meal.

• Kıymalı nohutlu ezogelin. Brown 3 ½ oz ground beef (100 grams) until its liquid cooks off, before the onion goes in. Stir in half a cup of cooked chickpeas for the last 10 minutes.

• Sebzeli ezogelin. Add a zucchini, a carrot and a potato along with the onion, then blend the finished soup smooth. This is the version to make for small children.

• Add vermicelli. Stir in 2 tablespoons of şehriye with the rice and bulgur. It is a common fourth grain in Turkish kitchens.

• Pressure cooker. It needs about 15 minutes under pressure instead of 30 on the stove. Never fill the pot more than halfway, since lentils foam and can block the vent.

• Add a teaspoon of cumin along with the mint. Restaurant versions almost always have it. It is often what people are missing when their soup tastes flatter than the one they ate in Turkey.

• Use pepper paste on its own and skip the tomato paste. This is the traditional way of making it. It gives a deeper, slightly smoky flavor.

• Add a teaspoon of dried oregano along with the mint. Oregano belongs in the Turkish version of this soup, though English recipes almost always leave it out.

• Use hot pepper paste instead of sweet for more heat. Start with half the amount and taste before you add any more.

• Cook it with chicken stock or bone broth instead of water. It is the single biggest change you can make for that restaurant flavor.

• Swap the bulgur for quinoa to make the soup gluten free. Rinse it first and stir it in for the last 10 minutes only.

• Leave the rice out. Plenty of Turkish versions skip it. The soup also holds up better in the freezer without it.

• Toast a tablespoon of flour in the fat before the paste goes in. Turkish restaurants use this for a smoother body that does not separate as it stands.

Serving Suggestions

Just like Turkish Tarhana Soup - Tarhana Çorbası, it is warm with spices and just right for cold winter nights. You can serve it with some Turkish flatbreads such as bazlama, pita bread, or Gozleme.

This hearty soup also pairs perfectly with boreks such as Potato Borek - Patatesli Börek, Spinach and Feta Pie, or Sigara Boregi (Turkish Cheese Rolls).

Storage Instructions

Let the soup cool before it goes into an airtight container. Cool it in a shallow dish rather than the deep pot it cooked in. Try to get it into the fridge within two hours.

It keeps for up to 4 days in the fridge and up to 3 months in the freezer. Freeze it in single portions so you only thaw what you need. The rice turns a little mealy after freezing, so leave it out if you are cooking a batch for the freezer.

The soup thickens a lot as it sits, so it will need loosening when you reheat it. Warm it through gently over low heat with a splash of water or stock stirred in, roughly a quarter of a cup for every two portions.

Taste it again after thinning, because the salt and the lemon get diluted along with everything else. From frozen, put it straight into a pan with half a cup of water over low heat.

Make Ahead

You can make the soup base a day in advance. Cook it without the bulgur, keep it in the fridge, then stir the bulgur in while you reheat it. It stays properly grainy that way instead of going soft overnight.

If you are freezing it, leave the lemon out. Add fresh juice when you reheat. The flavor comes back bright.

Recipe FAQs

Related Recipes

For more delicious soup recipes why not try:

Did you make this recipe? Please let me know how it turned out! Leave a comment below and tag @cookingorgeous on Instagram and hashtag it #cookingorgeous.

I hope you enjoy the process of making this delightful and warming Ezogelin Çorbası as much as you enjoy eating it! 🙂