Turkish Lentil Soup - Ezo Gelin

MoFo may be over but I'm still only half way through my virtual journey, so my plan is to carry on round the Med, cooking a few dishes from each country I pass through and posting maybe two or three times a week. For the time being I'm still in Turkey. It's a cold day today so I'm cooking soup. There are many different versions of Ezo Gelin, most including bulgar wheat, but this is the one that most closely resembles the soup I had at a little restaurant near the Spice Market in Istanbul some years ago. Lemon juice and mint are what make this lentil soup stand out from the crowd.

Ezo Gelin 

450 g red lentils
8 cups water
1 onion, finely chopped
6-8 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground coriander
300 g fresh tomatoes, skinned and chopped
2 Tbsp tomato paste
juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped

Cook the lentils for about 15 minutes until they begin to soften. Remove from the heat and set aside. Meanwhile saute onion and garlic in a little water together with the spices for around 3-4 minutes. Add tomatoes and tomato paste and cook for around 15 minutes. Stir in the lentils, add lemon juice and mint and bring to the boil. Cook for another 10 minutes, stir in most of the mint and serve topped with a little mint.

I served mine topped with half a bag of sweet bistro salad leaves comprising red chard, beetroot and lambs lettuce.

                                   .

MoFo Day 31/3: Radish and Carrot Salad

On one  visit to Turkey we were staying in a hotel in Ankara where there were bowls of olives and glasses of carrot sticks in lemon juice in the hotel bar. That was the first time I discovered that I love olives and that raw carrots were not only edible but positively enjoyable. I found a recipe for this salad here and after a minor adjustment, here is my final MoFo post as a tribute to that experience.

Havuklu Turp Salatasi (Radish and Carrot Salad) 

1 carrot, peeled and grated 
4-5 radish, sliced and cut into half moons

Dressing:
2 Tbsp vegetable stock
2 Tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
sumac
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped 

Combine grated carrot and sliced radish. Mix together vegetable stock and lemon juice with salt and pepper to taste. Pour dressing over the carrot and radish and leave to marinate for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with sumac and top with chopped parsley. Top it with some herbed olives for the complete experience.

                                             

MoFo Day 31/2: Shepherd's Salad

My second salad for today is a very simple but tasty salad of tomato and cucumber which I first came across in Istanbul. I subbed the olive oil in the recipe with some vegetable stock for the dressing. It works surprisingly well. The vegetarian version of this salad contains feta cheese but marinated tofu is a tasty sub.

Çoban Salatasi (Shepherd's Salad)

60 g tofu, diced
Half a cucumber
10-12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 small green or orange bell pepper, diced
3 spring onions

1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped

Dressing:
2 Tbsp vegetable stock
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Marinade the diced tofu in dressing for at least 30 minutes. Combine the diced cucumber, tomatoes, spring onions and pepper, mix in the marinated tofu, stir in the dressing and top with chopped herbs.

 

MoFo Day 31/1: Beetroot and Apple Couscous

I'm finishing up MoFo with a trio of posts of salad recipes. The first is a recipe I learned from my cousin Janet whose husband is Turkish. The raw beetroot in this salad gives it a jewel-like quality, the cooking apple and red wine vinegar make a nice sharp contrast to the sweetness of the beets and the bland taste of the couscous. Janet uses cooked beetroot in this recipe. I misread the recipe the first time I made it and used raw beets and it tasted so good I've used raw beetroot ever since. 

Beetroot and Apple Couscous

1 medium red beetroot, peeled and grated
1 medium cooking apple, peeled and grated
50 g couscous

Dressing:
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp vegetable stock
2 Tbsp soya yoghurt
salt and pepper to taste

Cover couscous with boiling water and set aside for about 5 minutes. Stir in the grated beetroot and apple. Combine dressing ingredients whisk well and stir into the couscous mixture.

                                      

MoFo Day 30: Red Lentil Kofte

I haven't been eating enough raw veg over the last week or so. I really don't much care for salad - it always seems too boring and there is something much more comforting about hot food.  I really need to find a way of eating more raw food though so I decided to focus on finding one new salad recipe each of the next few days. 

I'm starting out with lentil koftes. Always served in a lettuce leaf, these would form the centre of a good salad dish. I found a number of recipes for this dish - one in my Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookery cook, another at Almost Turkish blog and yet another at Hayriye's Turkish Food and Recipes Mine is a hybrid mix of all 3 recipes, subbing the olive oil with vegetable stock and

Red Lentil Kofte

1/2 cup red lentils, well rinsed
1 onion finely chopped
1/4 cup bulgar wheat
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp paprika
juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
1/2 Tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped
Little Gem or small Romaine lettuce

Cover well rinsed lentils in water, bring to the boil and simmer for around 20 minutes, until lentils are soft but still holding their shape, adding more water as necessary. Remove from the heat season with a little salt, stir in bulgar wheat, cover and leave for at least 10 minutes.

In another pan saute the onion in a little vegetable stock for 2-3 minutes. Add tomato paste, cumin and paprika and cook for a further 2 minutes. Stir in the the lentil mixture. Add lemon juice, parsley, mint and chopped spring onions. and combine well. When the mixture is quite cold, serve wrapped in lettuce leaves.

                      

MoFo Day 29: Green Lentil Stew

I adapted this recipe from one I found at the Almost Turkish blog. (Do check out this blog it has some great traditional and contemporary Turkish recipes.) The recipe as given there looks really good but my failure to cook much over the last few days meant that my body was crying out for leafy green veggies (who'd have believed that possible?) so I raided the fridge and added the last of the curly kale and some spinach. I also added some sumac, which isn't really necessary but added another taste dimension. Do add the sauce - it really brings a zing to the flavour.


Yeşil Mercimek (Green Lentils) 

1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 dssp flour (I used chickpea flour)
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 can (265g drained/cooked weight) green (Continental) lentils 
2.5 cups water
50 g chopped curly kale and/or fresh spinach (optional)
2 Tbsp fresh dill 
pinch of sumac (optional)

Sauce:
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp chilli pepper flakes

Saute onion and garlic in a small amount of water for around 5 minutes until softened. Stir in flour and tomato paste and cook for a few minutes more. Add cooked lentils and water and cook for 20 minutes. Add kale and/or spinach and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add chopped dill and a pinch of sumac if desired and cook for another 2 minutes. Serve topped with a spoonful or two of the sauce. I served mine with steamed veggies - broccoli, romanesco, petits pois and baby corn. It would be good with rice or bread as recommended in the original post.

serves 3 

                        

MoFo Day 27: Rice Pudding

One of the things I remember most clearly about my first trip to Turkey in the early 80s was the rice pudding, fragrant with rose water.This is my veganised version. I didn't have any pudding rice in the cupboard so I had to use white basmati instead which added yet another dimension of flavour. I replaced the sugar in the recipe with around one and a half teaspoons of agave syrup - you might want to add more but I found that sufficient. I know that agave is highly processed and not much better than sugar but dates or date syrup just don't look good in this recipe.

Rose-Fragranced Rice Pudding 

55 mls water
180 mls almond milk
33 g white rice, basmati is really nice
1.5 tsp agave syrup
1 tsp rosewater or orange blossom water
pinch of salt
freshly grated nutmeg
toasted almonds

Put water, almond milk and rice into a small saucepan. Add agave. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for around 15 minutes stirring occasionally until it thickens and the rice is cooked. Add rosewater and a pinch of salt and cook for 5 minutes more. Serve  topped with freshly grated nutmeg and some toasted flaked almonds. I served mine with some additional almond milk and a splash of cherry juice. 

serves 1

   

MoFo Day 21: Israeli Breakfast Beans

I'm moving into the Middle East for the last week of MoFo and today I'm in Israel with a recipe for haricot beans served on Palestinian couscous. I found the Palestinian couscous when I was browsing in Real Foods on my way to work on Thursday. It's about 4 times the size of ordinary couscous and made from wholewheat flour. This is a really quick and easy recipe that I'll definitely be making again.

Israeli Breakfast Beans

225 g haricot beans, soaked and then cooked
1 onion, finely chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 large tomatoes, skinned and chopped
large handful of fresh basil leaves
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion and garlic in vegetable stock for 3-4 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes and basil and saute for a few minutes more. Add cooked haricot beans with a small amount of the cooking water. Simmer for a further 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently. serve topped with chopped fresh parsley.

                   

MoFo Day 20: Dukkah

When I was a vegetarian during my student days in the 1970s we ate a lot of brown rice and vegetables, usually topped with tahini and gomasio. These days on Eat to Live I've had to cut back on the tahini and, ever since I discovered it, dukkah has replaced the gomasio. Seasoned Pioneers sell a tasty version but it's so easy to make your own. Dukkah is great sprinkled on top of a bowl of soup or stew or it you're not on Eat To Live, dip some homemade bread into a flavoured oil and then sprinkle it with dukkah - yummy.

 
Dukkah
100 g hazelnuts
100 g pistachios
50 g sesame seed 
1/2 Tbsp cumin seeds
1/2 Tbsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp sea salt
black pepper

Spread hazelnuts on a baking tray and roast in the oven at Gas Mark 2 for about 20 minutes until golden. Set aside to cool. Dry toast spices in a frying pan until the coriander seeds start to pop and then crush with a pestle and mortar. Dry toast sesame seeds until they turn golden and begin to pop. Place the nuts and spices into a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped - be sure not to over-process.Stir in the toasted sesame seeds, mix well and store in airtight jars.

 Variations: Add 25 g toasted pine nuts, 
                 Add 1/4 tsp dried mint
                 Add 1/4 tsp fennel seeds
                 Replace the pistachios with pumpkin seeds

                       

MoFo Day 18: Tunisian Vegetable Stew

After yesterday's disappointment I was feeling a bit anxious in case I produced another meal I didn't enjoy. I needn't have worried. This is a stew that I will definitely be making again. In some ways it's similar to the recipe I made on Day 15, but the addition of  sultanas and dried apricot give the stew an additional depth and together with the spices they give the stew a delightful fragrance. The lemon juice gives it a bit of a zing. I served mine on barley couscous with steamed green vegetables and topped with green baby leaves.

Tunisian Vegetable Stew                  

1 onion, finely chopped
2 Cloves of garlic, crushed  
1 red pepper, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
1 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
200 g  kale or other green leafy veg, shredded

225 g cooked chickpeas
250 g (1/2 can) chopped tomatoes
150 ml vegetable stock
25 g golden sultanas and/or dried apricots   
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
pinch of ground cinnamon
100 g mushrooms, sliced
1 courgette (zucchini), cut into matchsticks

Saute onion and garlic in vegetable stock for a few minutes. Add peppers and chilli and cook for a few minutes more. Add kale, chickpeas, tomatoes and vegetable stock and spices and simmer for 10 minutes. Add mushrooms and courgette and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.

 
                         

MoFo Day 15: Spicy Tunisian Chickpeas

For today I decided to make a recipe using the harissa paste I made yesterday. Using pre-cooked or tinned chickpeas makes this a really quick and easy recipe. I served mine with steamed veg but it would be good on a bed of couscous or brown rice.

Spicy Tunisian Chickpeas

1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2.5 cm fresh ginger root, grated 
1 pinch of saffron
1 small red pepper
1 small green pepper 
1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp harissa

225 g tomatoes, skinned and chopped
225 g cooked chickpeas
Fresh parsley, chopped to garnish     

Saute the diced onion and garlic in 1 Tbsp of water or vegetable stock for 3 minutes. Add ginger, saffron and diced peppers and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, lemon juice and harissa and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add chickpeas and  cook for a few more minutes. Serve garnished with chopped fresh parsley. 

           

MoFo Day 14: Harissa

A couple of the recipes I want to make this week use harissa, which is a very spicy paste used in Moroccan and Tunisian recipes. In the past I've either bought a jar of harissa paste or used a harissa spice grinder which I bought from Oxfam a few years ago Today I decided to make harissa from scratch.  

I only had bird's eye chillies which are very hot. This was possibly a mistake. As I started to process the harissa, microscopic fragments of chilli were released into the air - my nose started to run and tears rolled down my face. Perhaps a mask might have helped! The resulting harissa is exceedingly hot - when a recipe calls for a teaspoonful I am going to try using half that amount and the next time I make it I shall use a milder chilli.

Harissa

25 g red chillies, de-seeded and diced
1 small red bell pepper, de-seeded and diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed 
1 Tbsp fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped  
1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
1 tsp cumin seeds, crushed
1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 Tbsp vegetable stock

Blend all of the ingredients together to form a paste.

Storage recommendation in all the recipes I've read is to put the paste into a jar and cover with a layer of olive oil. This would not be Eat to Live friendly so my plan is to store some in the fridge and to freeze teaspoonfuls  in an ice cube tray for storage in the freezer. 

        

MoFo Day 13: Black-eyed Peas and Tomatoes with Spinach

I can't bring myself to move on from the flavours of North Africa so I'm going to have to revise my plans for MoFo. At current rate of progress I can't see myself making it all the way around the Mediterranean by the end of the month so I'm just going to take it easy and maybe I'll need to extend my virtual trip into November.

I have fond recollections of eating brown rice with a black-eyed pea and tomato stew when I was a student in the 70s - today's dish is a spicier version. I would definitely double the amount of spinach next time. Here is the recipe as I made it.

Black-eyed Peas and Tomatoes with Spinach

1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
100 g fresh spinach 
225 g tomatoes, skinned and chopped
350 g cooked black-eyed peas
1/2 tsp ground cumin
freshly ground black pepper
cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered

Saute the onion and garlic in water or vegetable stock until softened. Add spinach, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes, black-eyed peas, cumin and black pepper and cook for a further 8-10 minutes. Serve with a garnish of halved or quartered cherry tomatoes. I served mine with steamed green beans, broccoli and romanesco, topped with toasted almond flakes and paprika.

     

MoFo Day 10: Spicy Lentil Salad

One of the requirements on Eat To Live is that you eat a minimum of one portion (a cup) of beans or pulses per day. I usually have a bean soup and salad for lunch and then need to find a way of eating some more beans for dinner.Today's recipe is a spicy lemony lentil salad adapted from Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookery. I will definitely be making this one again. The combination of lemon and cumin is particularly scrumptious.

Spicy Lentil Salad

250 g brown lentils
1 small onion 
2 cloves of garlic
1 bay leaf 
1 tsp grated lemon peel 
4 spring onions, finely chopped
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp vegetable stock
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground coriander cumin

salt and pepper to taste 

Put the lentils into a saucepan with water to cover. Add one whole onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 bay leaf and grated lemon peel. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer until lentils are tender (around 25 minutes.) Take off the heat, remove and discard the onion, garlic and bay leaf.    Drain the lentils and put them in a bowl, stir in the spring onions. Combine the remaining ingredients and pour them over the lentils. Put the lentils into the refrigerator to cool and marinate for a couple of hours before serving. 

                                          

MoFo Day 9: Date and almond stuffed nectarines

I originally made another soup for today's post but it didn't turn out right so it's still a work in progress. That meant I had to quickly rifle through my cookbooks for an alternative. I had some nectarines that were calling out to be eaten, so I used a peach recipe from A Vegan Taste of North Africa. The peaches (or in my case nectarines) are halved and stoned and then stuffed with a filling of ground almonds mixed with dates heated in orange juice. They are then topped with flaked almonds and sprinkled with orange flower water and then baked for 25 minutes in a medium oven. Such a simple recipe and yet so yummy. The recipe recommended serving it with soya yoghurt but I didn't have any so I quickly made some cashew/almond creme to top my nectarines, which was a really tasty alternative. The recipe called for the baking dish to be greased. I cooked mine in a ceramic dish and didn't bother to grease it and actually it really didn't need it. I have another 3 nectarines so guess what I'll be eating for the rest of the week. This recipe is totally Eat To Live friendly as long as you haven't already eaten your nut allocation for the day. I'm rather sad that I only just discovered this recipe at the end of the soft fruit season and I'm wondering if it would work with frozen halved nectarines. I guess the filling would work in a baked apple. 

                       

MoFo Day 8 - Split Pea Bessara

Another cold bright day here in Edinburgh and I'm making more soup. Bessara is a spicy Moroccan soup often made with dried broad beans (fava beans) which can also be made with chickpeas or split peas instead. I don't have access to dried broad beans, so I opted for yellow split peas instead.          

Bessara    

250 g yellow split peas
1 medium onion, finely chopped  
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
3 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped  
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
large pinch of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste 
700 mls (3 cups) vegetable stock  

Saute onion and garlic in a small amount of vegetable stock for 4-5 minutes. Add spices, split peas, parsley and remaining vegetable stock, bring to the boil, turn down heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until split peas are soft and adding additional vegetable stock if necessary. Blend until smooth and serve with a garnish of chopped fresh parsley.
Serves 3

I enjoyed this soup, although I had to increase the spices from the original recipe. I served mine with a couple of mini wholemeal pitta breads and a topping of salad leaves as well as the parsley garnish. It would also be good with a garnish of defrosted frozen petits pois as in Robin Roberston's Yellow Split Pea Soup with Green Pea Garnish from Vegan Planet which is one of my favourite split pea soups

               

Mo Fo Day 7: Harira

Soup is one of my favourite meals and it's so easy to make it Eat To Live friendly. North Africa offers lots of inspiration for soups so I plan to try several this week. 

Two of my favourite cookbooks covering this region are A Vegan Taste of North Africa by Linda Majzlik and Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookery by David Scott which is no longer in print but available from Amazon.uk for only £0.01. I used these 2 books as a starting point for this recipe and then added my own variations.


Harira

1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 can (1 and 1/2 cups) of mixed beans
50 g red lentils
1 can (1 and 1/2 cups) of diced tomatoes 
500 ml vegetable stock
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground coriander
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
Juice of half a lemon

I also added around 200 g sliced mushrooms and 3 handfuls of chopped kale 

Saute the onion and garlic in a small amount of vegetable stock for around 5 minutes, add red pepper and grated ginger and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add beans, lentils tomatoes and remaining vegetable stock. Stir in the tomato paste, herbs and spices, plus kale and mushrooms (if adding). Cover and simmer for around 20 minutes. Add lemon juice and serve.

I topped mine with some additional green salad leaves to bump up the micronutrients