Cold Soup With Green Lentils
The first thing that comes to my mind when we mention summer food is cheese and watermelon (for Turkish people of course). If one day someone says you're gonna eat three meals a day and it will all be all cheese and watermelon, I'd say ok send it . But at least for my job, I need to diversify my meals and I try them to be cold. I want to share a soup that I made frequently this summer in this category; cold soup with green lentils.
Cold soup is an ayran (mix of yogurt and water) based soup like cold yogurt soup. I enriched it with green lentils and bulgur, colored and flavored with arugula.
Soup is a pre-dinner meal served before the main course. But when the weather is so hot, both appetite and desire for boiling main courses decrease. Under those conditions instead of a bowl of soup and a plate we prefer two bowls of soup. If you are not obsessed with eating a variety of food, do not hesitate to serve cold soup with green lentils as a main course.
Lean Cooking Is a Thing
As a final note, let me address a topic. Yeah, there's no oil in the recipe. There are recipes that I don't use oil from time to time and it is as astonishing as pastries that I don't use baking powder. Oil is not an ingredient that gives flavor as it is believed to be. It is mainly used to reveal the flavor of other ingredients (such as roasted onions and eggplant fries). No material in this recipe needs this support of the oil, so I didn't use it. But if you are looking for an olive oil smell in cold dishes, you can drizzle some olive oil on top while serving.
Enjoy the recipe...
Ingredients
- 1 cup green lentils,
- 1/2 cup thick bulgur,
- 2 cups of plain yogurt,
- 1 handful of arugula,
- Water,
- Salt.
Preparation
- Put the lentils in a small saucepan and add enough water to cover and simmer until half cooked,
- Add the bulgur and simmer until both soften completely,
- Drain and rinse with cold water,
- In a separate bowl, whisk the yogurt until it becomes creamy,
- Add bulgur and lentils and mix,
- Add water and mix until the desired consistency,
- Finely chop the arugula and add salt according to your taste and mix.
Bon appetit...