When I was in college back in Turkey, it was common for us students to eat cheap fixed menus at nearby restaurants which usually consists of soup, rice, a meat dish, and a dessert. My soup of choice (if there was any choice) was always Ezogelin. Tasty mixture of lentils and bulgur in a tomato-based soup, accompanied with a slice of fresh bread.

That’s why I was excited to see the recipe in one of the best-selling Turkish Recipe books on Amazon (Sultan’s Kitchen – eBook version is about $13). I got even more excited when the soup turned out really good.

Ingredients

Cooking oil

• 2 T olive oil
• 2 T butter

First Batch

• 1 onion finely chopped (3/4 cup)
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced

Second Bach

• 2 T tomato paste
• 1 tomato, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped (1/2 cup)
• 2 T paprika
• 1/2 t  mild Aleppo pepper mixed with a pinch of cayenne (original recipe asks for 1/2 Turkish pepper, which is not easy to find)
• 1½ c red lentils
• ¼ c long grain rice
• 7 cups of hot water
• 3 cubes of Knorr vegetable bouillon

Last Batch

• 1/4 c fine bulgur (you can make your coarse bulgur finer in blender)
• 1 t dried mint
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Prepare the ingredients as described above in the Ingredients list.

In a pot or a big sauce pan, put Cooking Oil over medium heat until it gets melted evenly.

Add First Batch, cook it until soft, for about 2 minutes.

Add Second Batch in the order listed, stirring for few seconds in between.

Cover the pot, bring it to boil. Lower the heat, simmer for 30 minutes.

At this point the rice will be soft, and lentils will be mushy and absorbed a lot of the stock.

Add the Last Batch, cook for another 10 minute, stirring occasionally.

If the soup is too thick, you can add some water, but the original recipe was 6 cups of stock, and we already added one more cup to compensate.