WHEAT
BURGHUL AND RED LENTIL SOUP WITH SIZZLING MINT AND CHILLI
Make heaps of this soup and freeze it for those times when you’re too tired to do anything more than reheat in a pot while you make the sizzling browned butter. Serve with hunks of sourdough bread.
PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes | COOKING TIME: 55 minutes | SERVES: 6
3 medium tomatoes
¼ cup (60 ml/2 fl oz) vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste (concentrated purée)
4 cups (1 litre/35 fl oz) chicken stock
2/3 cup (125 g/4½ oz) red lentils, rinsed and drained
2/3 cup (135 g/4¾ oz) burghul (bulgur)
4 cups (1 litre/34 fl oz) water
sea salt flakes and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon dried mint
1 teaspoon ground aleppo pepper
Remove the core from the tomatoes using a fine-bladed small knife, cut a small wedge out from around the stem end of the tomatoes. Drop into a pot of gently boiling water. After 3 minutes scoop the tomatoes out and when cool enough to handle, peel the skins off. Halve the tomatoes, remove the seeds and chop the flesh finely.
Heat the oil in a large sturdy pot over medium heat, add the cumin, turmeric, garlic and onion, and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 8 minutes, or until the onions soften. Stir in the tomato paste and simmer for 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook at a lively simmer for 3 minutes. Add the stock, lentils, burghul and water. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cook at a medium simmer for about 40 minutes, or until the soup has thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste, being careful with pepper, bearing in mind you are adding chilli at the end. Remove the pot from the heat and cover.
Melt the butter in a small frying pan over medium–high heat for about 3 minutes or until foaming and starting to brown, remove from the heat and stir in the mint and aleppo pepper. To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and drizzle with the chilli-mint browned butter.
TIP Aleppo pepper is a highly desirable variety of chilli with a moderate heat level, a fruity flavour and slight vinegary, salty taste. As a substitute, combine four parts sweet paprika with one part cayenne pepper.