Turkish Spinach and Lentil Soup

Turkish Spinach and Lentil Soup

  • Prep Time: 0 mins
  • Total Time: 0 mins
  • Servings: 8

    • Ingredients

  • 1cuplentils, uncooked
  • 5cupsnonfat beef broth
  • 1teaspoonsalt
  • 1/4 cupolive oil
  • 2cupsonions, chopped
  • 1/4 teaspooncayenne
  • 2bay leaves
  • 1/2 cupbulgur, raw
  • 1/4 cupfresh parsley, chopped
  • 2cupstomatoes, chopped
  • 1/4 cuptomato paste
  • 1pinchdried rosemary
  • salt and pepper
  • 2cupsspinach, coarsely chopped
  • to tasteparsley, chopped

    • Directions

  • Rinse the lentils.
  • Bring them to a boil in the beef broth.
  • Reduce heat andsimmer, covered, for 40 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a heavy souppot.Saute the onions until translucent.Add the garlic, cayeene, bay leavesand bulgur.
  • Stir the mixture on medium heat until the onions and bulgur arelightly browned.
  • Mix in the parsley and tomatoes.
  • When the tomatoes begin togive up their juice, gently stir in the tomato paste.Pour the lentils andtheir liquid into the soup pot with the onions and bulgur.
  • Simmer the soup for15 minutes.
  • Add the rosemary, salt and pepper to taste.If the lentils andbulgur have absorbed too much liquid, add more broth, water or tomato juice. Remove the bay leaves.
  • Just before serving, stir in the fresh spinach and letit wilt in the hot soup.
  • Garnish with more fresh parsley.
  • NOTES : Serve this soup with crusty bread.
  • Broil the bread on both sides,rubbed with a cut garlic clove, and drizzled with olive oil.

    • Reviews

  • “NOTE to the posting chef Carole Reu: your list of ingredients is missing the garlic! I added about 3 cloves, minced. Please correct your recipe. This was very delicious. I made it with my DIL and subbed veggie broth cause she is vegetarian. It tasted better after a day or two when the flavors mingled. Next time I might add some lamb and will also garnish with a good yogurt. It’s a keeper…thanks for posting.”

  • “I love this recipe and I make it all the time. Only change I make is Vegetable broth instead of beef.”

  • “Deeelicious!!!I used barley instead of bulgur (didn’t have any) and had to add some extra broth.Used McKays chicken seasoning instead of beef.Added some garlic.Yum!!Definitely will make again.Thank you for sharing!:O)”

  • “Healthy and hearty soup.I reduced the olive oil to cut down on calories, and I used chicken broth instead of beef.Hubby and I are very happy with the result, though I must admit that I added some cumin to my bowl (cumin+lentils=perfect).I will be making this again!”

  • “This is one of the best soups I have ever had, much less cooked. I substituted chicken stock for beef broth and was a bit heavy handed with the olive oil. Thanks!!!”

  • “Very tasty recipe with a wonderful aroma. I used Better than Bouillon vegetable broth (used almost 8 cups total and let simmer longer at the end) and swapped the bulgar for barley. Used 3 cloves of minced garlic and added a generous 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes. Will definitely be making this again and again!”

  • “Thank you Carol for a great recipe. As with the other reviewers I substituted vegetable broth and used 3 cloves of garlic crushed. This is the first time I’ve cooked anything with Bulgur and was pleasantly surprised by the flavor and texture. So for those who haven’t tried it before-go ahead-I bet you like it!”

  • “Awesome! We had to substitute vegetable broth, wild rice for bulgur and no tomatoe paste due to our “21 day cleanse” requirements – BF added crushed red peppers – turned out perfect! (I thought it was a tad too spicy – will reduce the cayenne to 1/8 teaspoon next time, but I’m very sensitive to spice) Great recipe! Send us more!! :)”

  • “This is one of the most delicious soups I’ve ever had!I did a few minor adjustments here and there, but the basic recipe.I’ve saved this one.Thanks for such a delicious recipe!”

  • “This was my first time making a soup with lentils. I was intrigued with the burghul and excited to try it. It was easy to make.I added sliced carrots and mushrooms to the broth mixture and red, yellow, and orange peppers to the onion mixure to get more veggies in.Love the flavor! Used 2 cloves garlic as most other users. So healthy and tasty!!! Great recipe!!”

  • “this is the best soup ever! love it love it love it. I made a couple of subs this time, vegetable stock instead of beef, tinned tomatoes instead of fresh and a handful of couscous instead of bulghar. Still lovely though, thanks for sharing”

  • “Love Zaar for helping me find these great recipes. Believe it or not we had three bags of bulgur and I was searching for ways to use it. This is not only a great soup (and good use for bulgur) it is very nutritious! Thanks so much for posting.PS you don’t mention garlic in the ingredients listing so I guessed about 2 cloves.”

  • “Hot Darn that was some good Soup!”

  • “I doubled the recipe this first time and I am so glad It is relatively easy and delicious! I have a freezer full for future cold evenings. Thanks for sharing!!”

  • “Made it once according to the recipe, and it was fantastic! I don’t even like lentils, but in this soup they taste good. The second time I made it with buckwheat groats instead of bulgur because that’s what I had. Not as good, but still tasty!”

  • “Very nice and tasty soup.Perfect for cold winter. I have used frozen spinach and vegetarian broth. Thanks.”

  • “I had spinach and I don’t like it raw.I wanted to make a soup and had no white beans…I did have lentils.So I made this not at all excited.But, I should have been.The soup was delicious.It does need tobe salted heavily though.My kids looked at it and said they wouldn’t eat it so they were allowed to dip their bread in it and all of them decided to eat it.the most exciting part is I made the soup yesterday and had the leftovers today…and they were even better.The tastes all became so deep with the rosemary.I did make this with chicken broth but since there are so many flavors I thought the broth taste would get lost.Super recipe, doesn’t take much time and a beautiful soup.”

  • “Thought I would try this soup since I had all ingredients on hand to make it and …… boy, am I glad I did! Wonderful flavor, different from the lentil soup I’m used to. The addition of spinach and bulgur really “bulk up” this soup. Filling, nutritious and very easy to make. You didn’t specifythe amount of garlic so I used 3 fat cloves sliced very thin. The soup has an odd aroma (must be the bulgur) but you forget all about that once you taste it. So much fun finding a tasty new way to fix an old stand by (lentils). Thanks for posting Carole.”

  • “As a self described soup freak, let me say, YUMMY!!This was such a different lentil soup than I am used to. The cayenne gave it such an afterthought of a kick, GREAT! I made this vegetarian for my daugther & me and had my non lentil/onion/veggie/soup eating hubby try it.He came back “don’t tell me what’s in it, just give me another bowl!”My dad who hates lentils, bowl and a half!I made as written except used canned chopped tomatoes, dried parsley and veggie broth instead of beef.This will be a repeat soup in my house.I will post a photo tomarrow when I reheat for lunch!Thanks Carole!!”

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