Tutmac Soup

While shopping in our local bazaar last week, I saw a woman selling some traditional soup ingredients on a very small stand in front of her. You may wonder what I mean with soup ingredients. Hee, women prepare some soup ingredients and keep them for Winter. They are like the healthy and delicious version of industrially-made soups. Some of these ingredients were varieties of noodle like dough pieces; some of them are in strips, some are in tiny squares. In addition, there were also the varieties of tarhana, which is a sun dried soup ingredient mainly containing several grounded vegetables and yogurt. All these were in plastic bags of 1 kg. You know I love talking to such ladies in bazaar, I assume that they know a lot of things about cooking, so I never miss the chance of talking to them in bazaar. That lady didn’t look like a usual bazaar seller, she was different as she wasn’t calling customers, she was just sitting behind her small stand and waiting for foodies interested in traditional soups. She said that she herself made all these soup ingredients, which means a plus for me. These ingredients are all unique as ou can’t find them at supermarkets. They don’t have a company product version, so such ladies are like great treasures if you don’t have time to prepare the ingredients yourself. Among all the ingredients on her stand, these teeny weeny squares took my attention. They were just like the ones mom used to make. It was surprising for me to see it in the bazaar miles away from my hometown. The lady’s recipe for this soup was different from mom’s, but I prefered to make it in mom’s style as I was sure it would take me to my childhood.

When she was younger, mom used to make our own bread like phyllo sheets and they would meet our monthly bread need. We wouldn’t buy bread loaves then. And whenever there was some piece of dough left, she would make these tiny squares from it. I mean she wouldn’t prepare the dough just for making the squares, but made these just after finishing rolling the phyllo sheets. The soup made of these squares are called Tutmac Soup or Kesme Soup.

The procedure to make these tumac squares is almost the same with Thimble Soup(Yüksük Corbasi), so you can check the recipe for the dough here. The only difference is that you will cut the squares even smaller and you will not stuff them with anything. After cutting them, dry them in a preheated oven over 170C for about 15-20 minutes. Then put them in jars and you can keep them for months. Whenever you want to make a traditional soup for your guests, you can make tutmac soup with these squares.

Tutmac Corbasi
Ingredients
- 1 cup green lentil
- ½ cup tutmac squares
- 5 or 6 cups water
- ½ lemon, squeezed
- 1 tbsp pepper paste (or 2 tbsp tomato paste)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp dried mint
- Salt to taste

Boil the green lentils until tender and drain to get rid of its black water. Pour 5 cups of water in a pot, add lentils and bring it to boil. When it boils, add the squares and boil until they get soft (about 10-15 minutes). Pour the lemon juice. Take it from fire.

Melt the butter in a pan, saute the onions and garlic in it. Put pepper paste and dried mint, mix until combined. Pour this mixture in the pot, sprinkle some salt, stir and bring it to boil.

If you like, you can drizzle some yogurt on it.

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Zucchini Stew

Kabak Yemegi

We went to the vegetable bazaar today and all greens took my attention. Whenever I go to this bazaar, I want to buy everything I see on stands. Today it was more colorful and fresh as a reflection of coming Spring. While we were filling our bags with tomatoes, the vendor was continually praising zucchinis near tomatoes. He was telling how fresh they  were and giving a recipe at the same time with the sound “Mmmm”. His recipe was so easy, saute the zucchinis and pour some yogurt on it. If you’re following my blog for some time, you may remember that we don’t like zucchini only recipes. There must be something adding some tasty flavors to this tasteless vegetable. Although I didn’t have any idea of such a recipe, I couldn’t resist more and bought half kilo zucchini at the end.

You might realize that I’ve been cooking some dishes with green lentil for some time. I thought that it would be a great idea to cook zucchini with green lentil. I mentioned this ‘new’ and ‘creative’ recipe during a phone conversation with mom and she laughed at me. She told me that there was already this zucchini stew in Turkish cuisine. Although, it’s not a new recipe for many people, this was a new dish in our kitchen, which made us decide to buy some zucchini on the next bazaar day.

Ingredients
•    3 zucchinis
•    4 tomatoes
•    1 onion
•    ¼ cup green lentil
•    1 tbsp dried mint
•    1 tbsp salt
•    ½ tbsp tomato or pepper paste
•    2 tbsp olive oil

Chop the onion and saute it in olive oil. Add green lentil and stir.

Dilute the pepper paste in a small bowl and add it into the pot.

Chop the zucchinis thick and throw them into the pot, cover it. Meanwhile peel and dice the tomatoes. Add them in the pot, sprinkle salt and dried mint on it and stir. Put the lid on the pot and bring th heat to the lowest. It will be ready in 30 minutes.

I felt that this would be a tasty dish even when it was cooking as it smelled so appetizing. And we thought that green lentil had a magical flavor that made everything delectable. If you still have suspicions on zucchini, I strongly recommend this recipe.

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Bulgur Pilaf with Green Lentil

Mercimekli Bulgur Pilavi
This pilaf is another rare recipe even in our country. So many people don’t know this pilaf, they generally cook tehm seperately, bulgur pilaf near green lentil stew. I love them, but I also love them combined in the form of a pilaf. If you have a kind of stew, this pilaf will be a perfect side dish.

Ingredients
•    1 cup bulgur
•    ¼ cup green lentil, boiled
•    2 cups water
•    2 green pepper, 1 onion
•    2 tbsp butter
•    1 tbsp olive oil
•    1 tsp black pepper
•    2 tsp salt
•    ½ tsp cinnamon

Melt the butter in a pan and add olive oil. Saute chopped  green pepper  and onion until soft, then add bulgur and boiled green lentil in it. Saute them for 5 minutes until bulgur gets crispy. Then pour water and sprinkle salt, black pepper and cinnamon in it and stir. Cover the pan and bring the heat to the lowest. When all the water’s gone, let it rest.

To serve it, put some in a small bowl and reverse it on a plate. You can garnish it with fresh dill or parsley. And if you have a bowl of homemade yogurt near it, you enjoy it more.

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Spinach Heads

I wrote a recipe of spinach with eggs two days ago. And in that post I told you to put the heads of spinach aside for another dish on another day. That another day is today. Let me clarify what I mean with spinach heads. The end or the root of spinach stem which is in pinkish color. You see it in the picture. I love its shape and color; it’s like a shy girl/actress greeting her spectators. I used these raw ones both for decoration and to show you what I mean.

I learnt this dish from mom, and I rarely meet another woman cooking spinach heads dish. When I was a child, I used to watch mom with a great admiration as she used to make several kinds of spinach dishes and some days later totally different dish with the heads of spinach used to come out. She doesn’t like wasting anything. This is not a very common dish in Turkish cuisine, but a minority of Turkish women make this pantry friendly dish, which I love much.

Ingredients
•    1 cup green lentil
•    2 cups water
•    1 cup spinach heads (of 1kg spinach)
•    1 onion,diced
•    1 middle size tomato, chopped
•    1 lemon (if you don’t want it to be too sour, ½ lemon is enough)
•    1 tbsp pepper or tomato paste
•    1 tsp salt
•    2 tbsp olive oil

Boil the green lentil in water until tender. If the lentil you use doesn’t soften easily, soak it overnight and then boil the following day.

In another pot, saute the diced onion in olive oil until golden, pepper or tomato paste in it and stir. Then add tomato and let it cook for a few minutes.

Meanwhile wash the spinach heads very well and then cut them into two. Then add these into the pot, stir it. When they lose their color, pour the lentil with its water into this pot. Squeeze the lemon, add salt and put its lid on. I love this dish sour, so I squeeze 1 lemon. Cook it on the lowest heat for 20 or 30 minutes. If you think its water is not enough, add some more.

You can serve it with bulgur pilaf (drinking house pilaf) or rice. And yogurt is also a great companion for spinach heads.

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Green Lentil Soup Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 small cup green lentil (put them in water and wait 10 hours. You can do this part at night.)
• 1 small cup pounded wheat (bulgur)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 green pepper
• 2 tomatoes, grated
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 onion
• ½ small cup pea
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• ½ cup of lemon juice
• 4 glass hot water
• Salt
• Dried mint

Saute the onion with olive oil in a pot. After it gets brown, add tomato paste and grated tomato. Sprinkle some dried mint on it and stir for 3 minutes.

Then pour the hot water in it. Keep stirring.

Just after it, put lentil (sieving them from water), wheat(bulgur), pea and salt. Cook them until the lentil, wheat and pea become soft (at least half an hour, over medium heat). Stir occasionally.

Finally add smashed garlic and lemon juice.

Enjoy it!

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