Turkish Red Lentil Soup with Dried Apricots - Very Vegan, Very Yummy

The other day my sister-in-law observed that my blog was lacking soup recipes. That got me thinking. Yup, there are indeed no recipes to soup my space up. I thought about the reasons and comforted myself that:

• I am no soup person. Even when we go out for dinner I seldom ask for soup; rather I impress upon the waiter that I have not eaten for eons and threaten him to bring the starter and main together and asap!
• Soup is for the 'cold' and for the 'not feeling well' times. And if somebody (read hubby)  is making a soup for me I would not overstay my welcome by demanding him to put them in nice looking bowls and take dainty pictures !
• What are Maggi & Knorr ready to make soups for ? Yeah, I know the taste is artificial, but ain't the packets in the aisles exactly for that? To make in a jiffy...
• Besides isn't rasam a soup ? Mulligatawny Soup is nothing but our quintessential milagu rasam. By that standard, my hearth boasts of a regular soup feature; never mind that we mix it with rice and eat :)

Cutting the long story short, I somehow found the real reason (drum-rolls ~!), I am lazy to make soups from scratch. So, I decided to to amend my indolence woes pretty soon. The opportunity came after Diwali. No, I/we did not fall sick. Rather, the over eating binging from the festivities meant that the tummy needed soothing food and this is where the soup came in to play. 

The soup a delightful combination of red lentils and dried apricots, is a delicate blend of sweet and savoury. The various spices blend in with fine results and creates a stimulating and racy dance on the taste buds :D

The Avant Garde Cookies theme for the week 3 of this month was turkish Cuisine and my best friend (read Google) came to my rescue. There were many recipes that I eyed but  this  soup caught my fancy. What was heartening was almost all the ingredients were in the pantry and there was no mad scurrying to assemble them.  I substituted paprika with red chilli flakes and parsley with coriander. Also apple cider vinegar got substituted for balsamic vinegar.

(Prep Time : 15 mins,Cooking Time :30 to 45 mins, Serves :4)

Here's How :-

I used a pressure pan for making the soup. Heat the oil over medium flame and add the onions and garlic. Saute until translucent. Add bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and cumin, and saute for 2-3 minutes.

Add lentils, water, coriander leaves and apricots. Cook up to 4 whistles and lower the flame for 5 minutes. Take off flame. 

Add the vinegar. Remove bay leaf and puree soup in batches in a blender. Season with salt and plenty of pepper.

Garnish with red chilli flakes and coriander leaves and serve hot with soup sticks or toasted bread. 

Verdict & Useful Pointers :-

Bags of flavours in this soup. A keeper recipe and yes I am a convert :)

1.	You can cook the soup in a thick bottomed vessel or a soup pot. Follow the same procedure and cook with a lid closed for 1 hour, or until the lentils are completely soft.
2.	If making the soup a little ahead of time, reheat it and serve hot with garnishes as required.
3.	I used whole spices for cloves & cumin and used a small ginger piece instead of ginger powder. If you have powdered spices for the same you can use it. Actually it does not matter, because you will be anyways pureeing the soup in the end.
4.	Adjust the spices to taste.

Linking it to Divya's 60 days to christmas

E.N.J.O.Y