This is another traditional dish from my hometown. I’m not sure if other areas of my country know it. Most probably they don’t because this dip is known in a few villages located in my city. It is called malıta in Turkish and although it might be served as dip, people in my village have it as a main dish. They eat it with a kind of lavash bread made by themselves and have plain onion with it. They don’t even peel or chop the onion, they just cut them in 4 halves and put on table. You dip a piece of lavash bread into this tasty lentil dip, throw it in your mouth and bite an onion layer to pair with it. This is how people in my village eat it, but you can pair it with anything like pita, grissini sticks or chips.
Sumac could be considered as the most important ingredient for lentil dip, so try to find it before preparing this tasty and healthy dip.
- 1 cup red lentil
- ¼ cup rice
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 ½ cup water
- 1 tsp cumin
- ½ tsp black pepper
- salt to taste
- 2 lemon wedges, to serve with
- Topping:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tbsp pepper or tomato paste(salca)
- 1 tsp sumac, for each serving
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley, for each serving
- Put red lentil, rice, chopped onion and water in a pot. Cook it over medium heat.
- Add salt and spices when it boils and boil until it is very soft and mushy.
- Start preparing its sauce for topping. Heat olive oil, add pepper paste into it and mix. It’s done in 30 seconds.
- Take some lentil dip on a plate. Top it with a little pepper paste sauce, parsley and sumac and serve with lemon wedges.
- Traditionally, lemon is squeezed on it before eating and you can serve onion slices or pickles with it.
Wow, well we’ve certainly never heard of this dip before Zerrin but it looks and sounds fabulous from your post. Is the bread bazlama? I’m going to try and make this to impress our friends at our next barbecue. We love raw onion, too.
Julia
Oh, I wish I hadn’t used up the last of my red lentils! I haven’t yet found a store here in Manila that carries them (though I’m sure there is bound to be one). Having it with lavash sounds delicious!
This dip looks flavorful and simple to make!
A pregnant friend of mine is craving lentils like crazy. I think I’ll make this for her. Yum!
Great recipe! Thanks for sharing your local dishes!
I love this dip Zerrin. I’d love to have some with fresh homemade bread for dinner. I wouldn’t need anything else.
Thanks for sharing
I love lentils, but have not had them like this, cannot wait to give this recipe a try. Thanks for the delicious idea