Bulgur with Green Lentils and Walnuts (Cevizli Bat)

Bulgur with Green Lentils and Walnuts is a traditional recipe from a Central Anatolian city, Tokat. In Tokat's local cusine dishes with grape leaves have an important role, and this recipe is a good example. Bulgur with Green Lentils and Walnuts is a bit like kisir, but has a nuttier taste with walnuts and lentils.



























1 cup fine bulgur
1 cup hot water
1 cup cooked green lentils (~1/2 cup dry green lentils would make 1 cup cooked lentils)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2-3 green onions, finely chopped
1/3 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
1 green pepper or 1/2 green bell pepper, finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp or less red pepper flakes
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh basil or 1 tsp dried basil flakes
1 tsp dry mint flakes
1 tsp or less black pepper
salt
optional a couple of cherry tomatoes

grape leaves (if unavailable, lettuce would do)

-Put bulgur in a bowl and add hot water. Stir once, cover with a thick towel and wait until bulgur soaks all the water.
-If you have fresh grape leaves, boil some water and cook grape leaves for 2-3 minutes. Set aside and let cool.
-Add tomato paste to bulgur and mix it well with the back of a spoon or your hands until paste is homogeneously distributed.
-Add lentils.
-Add green onion, parsley, dill, tomatoes, green pepper, basil, mint, red pepper flakes, black pepper, walnut, and salt.
-Serve bulgur with lentils with grape leaves or lettuce. Put some in the middle of a leave, make a roll or a bundle and enjoy.

note: Although the traditional recipe doesn't ask for it, I love adding lemon to bulgur and lentils.

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Green Lentil Soup with Rice (Pirinçli Yeşil Mercimek Çorbası)

Fall is here and I'm as excited about the turning leaves as I am about making soups again. As most of the Turkish green lentil soups, Green Lentil Soup with Rice is also a Central/Eastern Anatolia specialty. It is very simple, yet really delicious one, particularly with a crusty bread.

1 cup green lentils
1/4 cup rice
1 onion, finely chopped
6 cups of beef or vegetable stock
2 tbsp red pepper or tomato paste
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
black pepper
dill

-Boil 1 cup lentils with 3 cups of water until cooked but firm. Rinse.
-Saute onion in a pot with olive oil until soft.
-Add pepper or tomato paste and stir for another minute. (If you cannot find red pepper paste at Middle Eastern stores, you can spice up your soup by adding 1 tsp of spicy Thai roasted pepper or any Asian pepper paste to tomato paste)
-Add vegetable or beef stock, green lentils, rice, pepper, and salt, and cook on medium to low until rice is cooked.
-Sprinkle dill before you serve.

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Lentil Soup with Bulgur (Bulgurlu Mercimek Çorbası)

Lentil soups are very common in Turkey. This one is traditionally made with red lentils. However, I like the taste of bulgur more with brown or green lentils. For this one I used French lentils. The peppery taste of French lentils along with dried mint was simply perfect for this winter soup. To try the traditional Turkish recipe, just replace French lentils with red lentils.

3 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup French lentils
1/2 cup bulgur (I used fine bulgur, but coarse is fine, too)
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp flour (I used whole wheat)
6-7 cups of stock
2-3 tbsp dried mint flakes
2 tsp thyme
2 tsp red pepper flakes
salt


























-Saute onion with butter until soft.
-Add flour stir constantly for 1-2 minutes. Add tomato paste, stir another 1-2 minutes.
-Add lentils, bulgur, stock, and salt.
-Cover and simmer until lentils are cooked for approximately 30 minutes.
-At this point, if you want a smooth soup use a blender.
-Add mint, thyme, and pepper flakes.

Dried mint flakes definitely brightens up this soup remarkably. For the power of dried mint flakes, this recipe is my contribution to Weekend Herb Blogging which was founded by Kalyn and is hosted this week by Anna's Cool Finds.

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Vegetarian Potato Casserole with Green Lentils (Mercimekli Patates Oturtma)

Back in the 80s, when I was in the elementary school, to support farmers who couldn't sell their produce Turkish government had bought hard-to-melt-down amount of lentils. The government's solution for agricultural crisis created another problem: warehouses stocked with lentils.

Government's solution to this new lentil crisis was Ayşe Baysal, professor of nutrition and dietetics, aka "auntie Ayşe" or "auntie lentil." Auntie lentil appeared every single day, seriously, for months on TV, on the only channel of the time--the state's channel TRT1, and gave a lentil recipe. Behind this obsessive non-stop lentil recipe creation was, of course, the determination of government and auntie Ayşe to reduce the national surplus of lentils.

Turkish public learned from "auntie lentil" that 100 gr. lentils is equal to ? gr. ground meat; how to make phyllo dough pastries (börek) with lentils; or how to make dolmas with lentils. Some of these recipes inspired Turkish people to cook more with lentils, and some scarred us; they became a nation's nightmare or a part of its dark collective unconscious like "baklava with lentils"!! The idea annoys me to this day. (I wonder if anyone tried)

I remembered auntie lentil a couple of days ago when I wanted to make a traditional Turkish recipe, potato casserole, which requires ground meat. I am not really fond of ground meat and I was thinking about how or with what to replace it when I clearly remembered auntie lentil saying over and over again that lentils are perfect substitute for ground meat. And here we go...


























1 cup green lentils
5-6 potatoes, cut in 1/2 inch rounds (This time I used red potatoes, but any potato is fine)
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 big red Italian sweet peppers or 2 green chilies, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup chopped parsley
3 - 4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1 bay leaf
crushed red pepper flakes
ground pepper and salt

-Boil green lentils with 1 tsp cumin, 1 bay leaf, and 5 cups of water until cooked. Rinse.
-Boil potato rounds in salty water for approximately 10 minutes. Don't let them get mushy; they should be cooked but firm.
-Heat oil in a pan. Add onions and garlic. Cook for 5-6 minutes until onion is softened.
-Add peppers and cook for 3 minutes.
-Add tomato paste and cook for 2 more minutes.
-Stir in tomato and lentils. Add salt and pepper (and optional crushed red pepper flakes).
-Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes. (Add a little bit of water if it dries out)
-Grease an oven dish and place potato rounds. Cover potato rounds with lentils. Pour 1/4 cup of water.
-Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for 20-25 minutes.
-Sprinkle parsley on top before you serve.

The recipe turned out really good. We tried it with yogurt the first day; we loved it. And next day we heated it up in the oven with cheese on top. That was delicious, too.

This lentil recipe with my favorite herb parsley is for "auntie lentil" as well as for Simona of Briciole, my favorite lexiconist food blogger who is hosting Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging.

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Eggplant and Lentil Stew with Pomegranate Molasses (Mualle)

Here's another delicious certified Turkish eggplant recipe. I had mualle first in İstanbul at Çiya Restaurant. The owner and chef of Çiya, Musa Dağdeviren, is not only a great chef but also a passionate researcher of forgotten Anatolian recipes. He has traveled all around Anatolia and collected almost 4 thousand local recipes. That's why Çiya's menu changes daily. One of those 4 thousand recipes, Mualle, is a summer stew from Antakya. Mualle that I had at Çiya was so good that I got very excited when I found Dağdeviren's recipe in Food & Wine. Try this recipe before the last eggplants of the season start to disappear from farmers markets.

























3-4 long narrow eggplants, peeled in lengthwise stripes
1/2 cup green lentils
1 medium onion, chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3 banana peppers or any long thin green chilies, seeded and chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped or 2 tbsp dry mint
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tbsp tomato paste
2/3 cup olive oil
3 tbsp pomegranate molasses (you can find pm easily at Middle Eastern markets)
salt
























-Peel the eggplant partially and leave lengthwise stripes of skin. Cut them into 4 lengthwise. Chop every piece crosswise into 3. Place them on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Let them stand for an hour.
-Bring green lentils to a boil with 2 cups of water. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until lentils are soft.
-In a bowl mix tomatoes, green chilies, onion, garlic, mint, salt, crushed peppers, and tomato paste.
-Coat a small cast-iron casserole with 1-2 tbsp of olive oil. Put 1/2 cup of veggie mix on bottom. Cover with half of the eggplant, then half of the lentils, and half of the remaining veggie mix. Top first with remaining eggplant, then with lentils, and then with veggie mix.
-Pour olive oil around the side. Sprinkle pomegranate molasses.
-Bring the stew to a boil. Then cover and turn it down to low and simmer for 1-1 1/2 hours.

Mualle is good with rice and yogurt.

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Green Lentils (Yeşil Mercimek)

The eastern Thrace is the north western or the European part of Turkey. The region (except for Istanbul) is mostly occupied by people who migrated from the western Thrace (Greece and Bulgaria). Most of those people, like my grandparents, settled down in the region after the 1924 population exchange. This green lentil dish is cooked widely in eastern Thrace and known to be a western Thracian recipe.

1 cup dry green lentils
3 tbsp olive oil or butter
1 big onion, chopped
1 tbsp flour
2 tbsp tomato paste
salt
pepper
2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped

sauce
1/4 cup vinegar
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp rd pepper flakes

























-Cook 1 cup green lentils with 3 cups of water on medium until water is completely soaked.
-In a different pot heat the oil and stir in onions. Cook until soft.
-Add flour and stir for a couple of minutes.
-Add tomato paste and stir for another couple of minutes.
-Add lentils with 2 1/2 cups of water. Salt to your taste. Cook on medium low for 30 minutes. -Add dill after you turn it off.
-For the sauce, in a little bowl mix 1/4 cup vinegar, 2 cloves of minced garlic, and crushed pepper.
-When you serve the lentils, put a couple of spoons of the sauce on lentils.
-Serve with bread or rice.


This recipe with the perfect touch of garlic is for Kalyn's WHB. WHB is hosted by Haalo of Cook (Almost) Anything at Least Once.

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Rice with Lentils (Mercimekli Pilav)

This is a recipe that I and my collage roommates made and enjoyed a lot of times in our dorm kitchen. This was the tastiest thing we cooked.

1 1/2 cup white rice
1/2 cup green lentils
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 tbsp olive oil or butter
3 cups of water
salt

-Boil lentils with 3 cups of water on medium for 20-30 minutes or until they're cooked. Be careful not to overcook them. You don't want them mushy. When they're cooked, rinse them well and set aside.
-Put oil in a pot and stir onions for 10 minutes.
-Add rice and keep stirring for 3-4 minutes until rice turns into a translucent color. [I used 1 1/2 cups of rice, but you can use as much as you want. Just do not forget that the ratio of rice to water is always 1 to 2]
-Add water and salt. Bring to a boil then turn it to low. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Then stir in lentils and cover again. Cook on low until rice soaks all the water (approximately 20 minutes).
-Turn it off and cover the top of the pot with a paper towel or a clean kitchen towel. Place the lid on paper towel and let rice sit for at least 10 minutes before you serve.
-Try it with yogurt.

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