New Recipes!

Food here is amazing- Anna and I have basically loved everything we have eaten.While there isn't a ton of variety when it comes to food everything is very delicious and there have been very few things that we haven't wanted to eat again. There are a couple of things that we wanted to learn to make so we could take the recipes home with us. One day one of our roommates was gracious enough to teach us how to make our favorite soup- Mercımek Çorbası- which means lentil soup. Here is a photo blog of the recipe.

Mercımek Çorbası

2 ½ cups red lentils (or green lentils)

Rinse lentils a couple of times until water is clean

1 onion

1 potato

1-2 carrots (depending on size)

Put lentils in a pot along with chunks of onion, potatoes, and carrots.

Add about a teaspoon of salt.

Add water and cover until boiling. Bring to rolling boil then turn down the flame to medium to low. Let it cook for about 30 minutes until everything is soft.

Remove froth before blending.

When it is finished cooking, take a hand blender and blend it into a puree type soup.

In a small pan mix tomato paste (2-3 TBSP) with oil (enough to cover bottom of pan) and crushed red pepper (to taste); could also use black pepper instead. Mix well over heat and sauté for about a minute.

Start adding in soup to saucepan with paste to loosen up paste.

Once it is done, mix it in with the soup.