Turkish Red Lentil 'Bride' Soup
A wonderful and easy soup. Traditional Turkish soup. Garnish with lemon slices and fresh mint leaves.
A wonderful and easy soup. Traditional Turkish soup. Garnish with lemon slices and fresh mint leaves.
As a cook who likes to eat a lot of vegetarian recipes for my main course meal this soup is a very good source of vegetable protein with red lentils that is so easy to make and rewards you with a very delicious bowl of soup with the lemon slices added for a garnish that gives the soup nice tang. The one change that I made was to add oat bran instead of bulgur that did not seem to make a big difference to the outcome of this soup. I would certainly recommend this soup to others who are looking for an easy soup to make that is very nutritious for you.
Read MoreAs a cook who likes to eat a lot of vegetarian recipes for my main course meal this soup is a very good source of vegetable protein with red lentils that is so easy to make and rewards you with a very delicious bowl of soup with the lemon slices added for a garnish that gives the soup nice tang. The one change that I made was to add oat bran instead of bulgur that did not seem to make a big difference to the outcome of this soup. I would certainly recommend this soup to others who are looking for an easy soup to make that is very nutritious for you.
Aw, man, this soup rocks! It takes me back to when I lived in Turkey from 1980-1983. I can't believe that I finally found a recipe for the soup I used to love so much! Thank you! This one is definitely a keeper :-)
I made this soup for a Turkish friend and she agrees that it’s very close to authentic and delicious. My only suggestion is to keep the lid on the pot as the lentils and bulgur absorb a lot of the liquid. I like heat so I doubled the cayenne.
It's not that this soup is amazing, it's just that I keep trying lentil soups and this seems to be the only one that is all about the lentils, and is not dominated by other flavors or spices. It is easy to make too. All the ingredients fit right in a pan I have with 3" sides and the lid worked great to simmer it. I used 2 level tblsp of low-sodium broth paste to the 8 cups of water. I figured I could add sea salt at the end if it needed more. I am not too familiar with bulgar and it tasted a lot to me like barley. I liked the addition of the lemon flavor. I just used a little squeezed lemon juice. TY
Wow! This soup is amazing! I subsituted 1/2 cup of rice for the bulgar and added 2 carrots and 4 celery stalks to the onions. It was so delicious, I already forwarded the recipe to my brother and sister as we have a middle eastern dad that use to cook for us all the time. An instant favorite that I will make many more times.
This is a tasty, filling, easy to make soup. It is good with chicken broth or vegetable broth. It tastes best the next day (or the day after), when it takes on a creamy consistency like dal.
Lovely soup! I cooked it in the pressure cooker and cut cooking time in half :)
Lovely soup, my background in cooking is middle eastern cuisine and I found this to be a nice change to lentil soup. I added chili powder instead and a little citric acid while simmering to give it a little tang and it was delicious served with toasted pita bread.
This soup was very easy to make. I made it for a Turkish meal at my friend's home. She and her mother are from Turkey. She stated that this is a common soup made in villages for community meals and that she makes it once a year. Everyone loved it and went back for seconds! I could not find bulgur here so I substituted it with farro. It took less time to simmer. I left it on 30 minutes and it was perfect!
This is great! I made a quite a few changes, only because I wanted to use up what we had in our cupboards. It's a great recipe, and is very forgivable, so I'm still rating it 5 stars. I want to report the ingredients I used, so people know the substitutions will work. First, I used half red lentils, and half brown, chicken broth instead of vegetable stock, chopped sundried tomatoes instead of tomato paste, lemon juice instead of sliced lemons, and left out the mint. Wow, I guess I really did change it up. But even with these substitutions, the soup was great. This will be my new favorite go to soup recipe! Cheap, easy, and tastes great. Can't get better than that.
This sounded intriguing and I'm so glad we tried it. Quick & easy, inexpensive, and boy was it good! It was very filling, and the mint and lemon "made" the dish. I used half broth and half water to cut down on salt, and it tasted wonderful. Am looking forward to the leftovers.
Such a great dish! Added a diced carrot and celery stalk. Used my immersion blender at the end to make it smooth. Stirred in some plain yogurt and ate with crusty bread. Used half stock, half water to reduce the salt.
Very good and tastes close to the authentic soup. I used chicken broth and then used a blender at the end to make the texture smooth. We loved it!
First time I saw "Bride's soup" on allrecipes! Awesome. I had been winging it for a while. The only difference I made was that I added Sumac (a purple Turkish spice) and cooked with a pinch of lemon salt. (Squeeze of lemon while cooking will work too, in addition to the lemon slices at the end that are already mentioned.) I cook the lentils first, then hand-blend, then cook the bulgur after. And also, just because I only ever have this on hand, I always use fresh Miso paste for my stock for all my soups and I think it makes no difference. Great recipe. Thanks for sharing! My fiancé and I lived on Bride's soup when we were in Turkey, even though the traditional "Lentil çorba" is more common...
Great cool evening main dish. We had a baked potato on the side. I did make it a bit different, since there was fresh mint in the garden, I diced to very fine the mint and used 1/4 cup leaves, and cooked it with the entire batch of broth at step 3. For the broth used for broth the mushroom flavored 'better than bouillon brand, 1 teaspoon for each cup of water. You do need to cook with the lid off the pot to help it thicken, or at least I did. Also, when I served I had lemon garnish as suggested, but also added a dollop of 'sour cream' by Tofutti, which is vegan. A great and hearty vegan meal! I love AllReciepes.com since I can truly find anything here.
This is the best lentil soup EVER! My spouse is middle eastern so I've had my fair share of lentil soups. This is the best! I love that it's a 1 pot meal too- no blender required. I left out the cayenne pepper because I didn't have any, I used a couple dashes of chili pepper instead. Even my fussy 16 month old baby liked it! I will be making this again! Thank you Genevia!!
I was invited to a Turkish themed dinner. This soup was good. I had never had any Turkish food before and this was a good first step. Good unique flavor. This soup was so thick it didn't even need a bowl, I wished I had some crusty bread to dip. I will pass this receipt on to my mother who is a vegan, it will be a good new addition to her menu.
I made it for dinner tonight with a salad. Very tasty and so healthy. Frying the onion in the butter added so much more flavor than olive oil. I didn't have any mint leaves sadly. But the flavor was still great! I used beef broth - turned out a bit too salty. I will use low sodium broth next time.
Simple and easy. I increased bulgar to 3/4 cup as we like thicker soups. It really benefits from the lemon juice. This soup is a hit! Easy to make and flavorful.
This was delicious! So easy and so good! My family loves it. I've made it three times in one month. Thanks for sharing!
Great variation of lentil soup, I was getting tired of the "curry lentil", soups and the use of mint and lemon as well as bulgur make this alternate a nice change. It is also very easy to make. I made some last week and came back to this page to make a second batch today. I also suspect it will freeze well.
I made it for dinner tonight with a salad. Very tasty and so healthy. Frying the onion in the butter added so much more flavor than olive oil. I didn't have any mint leaves sadly. But the flavor was still great! I used beef broth - turned out a bit too salty. I will use low sodium broth next time.
This is one of the best soups I've ever made!! My grocery store did not have vegetable stock so I used vegetable broth instead and also added some extra powdered broth because it tasted a bit bland. I also added some finely chopped cauliflower. 10/10 will make again!
There is no way to mess this recipe up. It is easy peasy with a minimal amount of dicing involved. It is nutritious and delicious. Perfect in the cooler months. I love it!
Made it for my Turkish boyfriend and he absolutely loved it! I had no dried mint so I chopped, stirred in and garnished with fresh. I will definitely make this recipe again. Thanks
I made this soup only because I had some leftover dried mint I wanted to use up. This soup is AMAZING!! Very delicious, healthy, easy to make, and even my kids liked it! I have made it several more times, and it is always a winner!
Nice, filling soup with great flavour. I found 2 tsp of dried mint was enough, perhaps my mint was particularly pungent? I squeezed a bit of lemon juice into the soup rather than put lemon slices on top. My kids definitely did not like the look of this soup (colour and texture) but loved the taste so I would suggest lots of garnish if your family tends to judge food by appearance.
I'm Turkish and I absolutiely love this soup. I'm sure this taste close to authentic, but I can't try because I'm vegan and this has butter in it. To veganize it you can use olive oil instead of butter. It definitely doesn't compromise the taste. There are some recipes a nonvegan ingredient is critical to the taste, but this isn't one of them. Also vegetable stock isn't commonly used in Turkish homes, so if you want it to taste closer to authentic you could use tap water instead. I also add rice in it, but it's not a must. Some people also add garlic while cooking (so it's cooked), I tried it and it tastes awesome, but I prefer without garlic. As a lot of people pointed out squeezing lemon juice in it gives it an awesome savory taste.
My Turkish husband loves this soup! Don't forget to squeeze lemon juice into it as you eat it. Delicious and a very forgiving recipe. I've had to make substitutions from time to time and the variations rarely hurt it.
Fantastic soup! Added more dried mint from the beginning when frying the onions. Added 2 cups of diced cooked ham. This recipe is a keeper. Genevia, thanks for sharing it with us all.
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