Ezogelin Çorbası (Ezogelin Soup Recipe)

5 from 13 votes

Ezogelin Çorbası (Ezogelin Soup Recipe)

The classic Turkish lentil and bulgur soup, finished with dried mint and pepper flakes sizzled in butter. Ready in about 50 minutes from start to finish.

Prep Time15

Cook Time35

Total Time50

Course: Appetizer, Main Course, Soup

Cuisine: Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Turkish

Diet: Halal, Low Calorie, Vegetarian

Servings: people

Calories: 293kcal

Author: Ayla Clulee

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion (chopped)
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
½ tablespoon red pepper paste
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon chili flakes
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup red lentils
½ cup bulgur
¼ cup rice
6 cups vegetable stock or chicken stock (1 ½ liter)

For Garnish

1 ½ tablespoon butter or olive oil (20 grams)
½ teaspoon chili flakes (replace with paprika if its too spicy for you)
½ teaspoon dried mint
4-6 lemon wedges

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Prepare the Soup Base

Put a Dutch oven or heavy-based saucepan on medium heat and add olive oil.
Add the onions and sauté until soft and slightly browned then add the garlic, and sauté for another minute.
Stir in the tomato paste and red pepper paste and sauté for a few more minutes on low heat.
Add freshly ground black pepper, chili flakes, salt, and red lentil, sauté for 2-3 minutes then add the bulgur and rice.

Cook the Soup

Pour in the stock, give the mixture a good stir and bring it to a boil.
Turn the heat down and gently simmer with the lid closed for 30 minutes or until the legumes are softened.

Blitz

Remove the pan from the heat and blitz the soup coarsely with a stick blender.
If the soup seems too thick, then add a bit more water. If the soup looks too liquid, continue to boil the soup for another few minutes.

Garnish and Serve

To prepare the garnish, melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the chili or paprika and mint.
Sauté the mixture on low heat for a few minutes, then pour the butter garnish into 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.

Notes

Storage. Cool the soup in a shallow container and 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.
Reheating. The soup thickens a lot as it sits. Warm it 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, since the salt and the lemon get diluted too. From frozen, go straight into the pan with half a cup of water.
Make ahead. Cook the base a day ahead without the bulgur, then stir the bulgur in while you reheat it so it stays grainy. If you are freezing it, leave the lemon out and add fresh juice on reheating.
Vegan. Use vegetable stock and swap the butter in the garnish for olive oil. Everything else is already plant based.
Gluten free. Bulgur is wheat, so there is no gluten free version of it. Use rinsed quinoa instead and add it for the last 10 minutes. Check your stock too, since cubes often contain gluten.
Substitutions. With no red pepper paste, use an extra tablespoon of tomato paste plus a teaspoon of pepper flakes. Red lentils are the one ingredient with no good swap. Green and brown lentils hold their shape and will not thicken the soup.
Dried mint only. Fresh mint tastes completely different here and will not give you the flavor you want.
Bulgur. Use coarse rather than fine. Fine bulgur turns the soup pasty. If it is all you have, use about a quarter less and add it for the last 5 minutes.
The garnish. Give the mint and pepper flakes 30 to 40 seconds in the hot fat and no longer. Dried mint burns quickly and turns bitter once it does.
Fry the tomato and pepper paste in the fat for a minute before any liquid goes in, or it tastes flat.
Lemon goes in at the end, off the heat. Acid added early stops the lentils softening properly.
Salt lightly at the start and adjust at the end. The soup reduces as it cooks. Pepper paste and stock both carry salt too.
Consistency. This soup is meant to stay grainy, so do not over blitz it. If it is too thin, simmer it another 5 to 10 minutes. If it is too thick, add hot water a little at a time.
Garlic burns fast, so keep stirring once it goes in.
Do not soak the lentils. Soaking washes away the starch that binds the soup, and a soaked batch separates more easily.
Restaurant method. Parboil the rice and bulgur separately, drain, then stir them in near the end. Stir the soup with a balloon whisk rather than a spoon, and dice the onion instead of grating it.

Nutrition