MoFo Day 24: Syrian Lentil Soup

I made another lentil soup today - a Syrian soup called Shurbat Addes. This one is heavy on the garlic and ground coriander which I like. I found the original recipe to be a little bit bland for my taste - perhaps it is in simple recipes like this that cutting out the oil makes the biggest flavour difference, plus I also cut back on the salt as one and a half teapoonfuls was more than I wanted to add, but undoubtedly was necessary to give flavour to the soup. I compromised by adding the juice of a lemon which pepped it up no end and adding a pinch of paprika and some dukkah to the top of each serving. 

The original recipe called for a garnish of Aleppo pepper. I walked down to Jordan Valley in the hopes they would have some, but alas no. Didn't help that I was searching for it under pepper rather than chilli. I shall have to try the Turkish deli the next time I'm over at Tollcross. At least I found some Turkish yellow lentils and I used them in place of the red ones. I will definitely make this again but would probably add some crushed chillies to the soup while it was cooking.

Syrian Lentil Soup

125 g  red or yellow lentils
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp salt
water
juice of 1 lemon
 
Saute garlic in a little vegetable stock for a couple of minutes. Add ground coriander and simmer for a few minutes more. Add the lentils and water to cover, bring to the boil, cover and turn down the heat. Add salt and simmer for around 45 minutes (stirring from time to time to make sure it does not stick to the bottom of the saucepan and adding more water if necessary) until the lentils have turned into a puree. Add lemon juice, stir and cook for a few minutes more. Serve topped with Aleppo pepper, crushed chillies, dukkah, ground cumin or paprika, lemon wedges and/or chopped fresh coriander (cilantro).