The Turks love their red lentils, using it mainly in recipes such as vegan köftesi (meatballs) and soup. Most Turkish recipes for Red Lentil Soup (Kırmızı Mercimek Çorbası), call for it to be pureed into a smooth consistency before serving, and topped with a drizzle of spiced olive oil or butter. One lazy day, I made the recipe without either of those steps, and the soup was still so good that I tend to do it this way for a lighter meal with less cleanup.
Where to Find Turkish Spices and Substitutes
I get my cumin, Aleppo pepper*, dried mint, and urfa biber all from the Silk Road Spice Merchant. Their spices are really fresh and they also offer free shipping within Canada (and the US I believe) with an order minimum. You are also likely to find the first three spices at a well-stocked supermarket, although I haven’t yet seen urfa biber for sale anywhere in my usual grocery stores.
*Aleppo pepper is interchangeable with pul biber, which is its Turkish name. Syrian Aleppo chili is no longer so common these days as the country continues to recover from the Syrian Civil War, but Turkish growers also produce this pepper, so you should still be able to source it, at the very least from online stores like Silk Road Spices or Penzey’s if not in your local stores. If you don’t have Aleppo pepper available, no worries, just leave it out. To add a bit of spice, you can sprinkle in some red pepper flakes instead.
Step-by-Step Process
Step 1: Slice and dice your onions, carrots, and potatoes. Add them to the Instant Pot or slow cooker along with lentils, okara (optional), and spices.
Step 2: Pour in the water.
Step 3: Give everything a good mix and pressure cook for 15 minutes. (Or slow cook for 4 hours.)
Step 4: Once cooked, let pressure release naturally for 15 minutes. Stir in lemon juice and Aleppo pepper to taste.
Recipe Card
Did you make this recipe? Please consider leaving a rating below to let me know how you liked it.
You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @earthtoveg, I will shout you out in my Stories!
Oil-Free Turkish Lentil Soup (Instant Pot or Slow Cooker)
Use Imperial/Metric buttons below to toggle between volume vs weight measurements. I recommend weighing out your ingredients for best results.
Ingredients
Soup
- ½ cup red lentils 100g
- ¼ okara from 1 batch of
Homemade Soy Milk *optional; seeNote 1 - 1 medium onion, sliced 200g
- 1 medium carrot, diced 90g
- 1 small potato, diced 70g
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp urfa biber + more to taste; see
Note 2 for substitutions - 1 tsp salt 6g
- 3 cups water 720g
- 2 tbsp lemon juice from ½ lemon
Garnishes (optional)
- pul biber or red pepper flakes
- fresh parsley
- fresh mint or dried mint
- lemon slices
Instructions
- Add red lentils, okara, onion, carrot, potato, cumin, urfa biber, salt, and water to the inner pot of the Instant Pot or slow cooker.
- For Instant Pot: use Pressure Cook setting on High mode for 15 minutes, followed by a full natural release (15–20 minutes).
- For slow cooker: slow cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.
- After cooking, stir in lemon juice. Check the consistency and add more water if you'd like a thinner soup.
Nutrition
Recipe Notes
- What the heck is okara?! This is the leftover solid sediment from making your own soy milk. It contains quite a bit of nutrients, including protein, so rather than throwing it out I’ve been experimenting with adding it to recipes. It does have a rather distinct “soy” flavour and can be quite gritty, so it doesn’t always work in recipes, but luckily it does well in this red lentil soup, where you won’t taste it at all.
- If you’re wondering why I don’t provide a cup or weight measurement for the okara, it’s because—depending on how tightly you strain your soy milk—the amount of water in the okara will be different, which affects its measurement. So in the recipe, when I say “1/4 okara,” I mean 1/4 of the total okara you strain from making a full batch of my Homemade Soy Milk recipe. It’s around 1/3 cup (70g) for me.
- Be sure not to add more than the amount specified, though, otherwise, the grittiness will become noticeable. And obviously, this is an entirely optional ingredient. It’s a great way to use up your okara if you have some on hand, but omit it if you don’t have any. The flavour and consistency of the soup won’t change much either way.
- For the urfa biber: you can substitute coarsely cracked black pepper instead, though I would start with 1/2 tsp if you’re not a fan of spice because black pepper is hotter than urfa biber.
- This soup is wonderful on its own as a light meal. But it can also be paired with a salad or a couple slices of fresh bread, such as this 45-minute soda bread.
So good!! I used black pepper and regular pepper flakes. Would make this again!
I’m so happy you enjoyed this Brianna!