Lentil and Bulgur Soup

A few months ago when I was trying to lose weight I found this recipe for a filling soup on the excellent Nearly Turkish blog. It was almost vegan as it appeared, so I changed the butter for oil, recalibrated the cup measurements for a European audience and shared it with a vegetarian group on a private conferencing system Cix - (it's a great place to have threaded conversations without flaming or adverts. But as with everything there is rough with the smooth and this isn't the place to discuss it. Leave a comment if you'd like me to explain further.).

Nothing happened (including me getting thinner) until this week when my good friend and fellow blogger Niles decided to give the soup a go. He's always very charming and tactful but he said "soup wasn't as tasty as it could be". I was worried, had my diet addled taste buds misled me in my assessment of this economical and warming lunch? I decided I had to make it again and see if he was right.

Of course, being me, I couldn't decide whether to pull out the 'tasty' stops and try to add flavour or follow the recipe exactly and carry out a proper scientific test. To cut a long story shorter, I did both. The soup was tasty, to me at any rate, and I have enough to last me for the rest of the week.



Almost Turkish Lentil and Bulgur Soup:

This is the original version I shared, with notes on how I modified it today.

15g vegan margarine (or subs. 10g olive oil) (I doubled this today)
1 medium onion, finely chopped (used two onions)
(added two big cloves of garlic today)
100g French lentils
115g bulgur
30g flour (left out the flour)
500ml tomato juice (used a can of chopped toms and a little extra water)
1 litre water or stock (I prefer Marigold low salt stock powder but used a very salty French cube today)
2-3 tbsp dried mint flakes (I had no dried mint and substituted 6 tbsp. fresh mint, finely chopped)
2 tsp thyme
2 tsp red pepper flakes (I used about 1/2 tsp. as I can't take hot at the moment.)
salt

Saute onion (and garlic) with marg/oil until soft. (I gave it a good long time so that it browned a bit)
Add lentils, bulgur, juice and water/stock, mint, thyme, and pepper flakes.
Cover and simmer until lentils are cooked for approximately 30 minutes. Add extra water if you think it's getting too thick before the lentils and bulgur are cooked.
Add salt to taste. (the stock cube was so salty this wasn't necessary but I added some freshly ground black pepper to the bowl)

See, easy peasy! The left over soup gets thicker as the bulgur and lentils continue to absorb the liquid so add a little extra water or juice when reheating to get the consistency you prefer.