Yoghurt Soup with Rice (Yayla Corba)

I have yet again revised my Yoghurt Soup recipe. This one is by far the best AND easiest I have made up until now. My previous yoghurt soup recipe contained egg, but this one doesn't include egg nor do I feel it needs it.

It's a Turkish recipe so their measurement for a cup is 200ml not the standard 250ml.

Yoghurt Soup with Rice
from Hunerli Bayanlar

Ingredients

• 4 cups or about 800 ml Chicken Stock
• 3 cups or about 600 ml water
• 1 cup yoghurt (I used 250ml cup)
• 3 heaped tablespoons Rice (I used medium grain)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 heaped tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon dried mint
• Salt

Sauce for top of Soup: (not essential)

• butter
• paprika

Method

• Put water, chicken broth, salt, and washed and strained rice into a saucepan. Cook on low heat, until rice is tender, and comes to the boil (about 15 minutes)
• Put butter in a small saucepan and melt over medium heat without burning. Add the flour, stirring until golden and turn the stove off.
• Take up to 3-4 tablespoons of the rice water and add to the buttered flour, whisk to make a paste like slurry.
• Add this slurry/paste mixture back into the saucepan with the rice and whisk quickly to ensure there are no lumps
• In a bowl, whisk yogurt, take 3-4 tablespoon of the rice and flour mixture and whisk again. This ensures we increase the temperature of the yoghurt to prevent it from curdling. 
• Add the yoghurt mixture to the soup and whisk 
• Cook on low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionaly
• Add mint, stir once and turn off the heat
• Make the sauce for the soup by heating some butter in a separate pan and adding paprika once the butter has melted.
• Serve fresh and warm as possible.
  
  

Easy Red Lentil Soup - Chunky Style (Kolay Kirmizi Mercimek Corbasi)

There are so many ways to make lentil soup.... I make this when I feel like having a chunky style soup. Enjoy with lots of lemon :)

Ingredients

• 1 cup red lentils, picked and washed
• 1 cup chicken stock (optional)
• 7 cups water
• 1 onion, diced
• 3-4 tablespoons tomato paste
• salt
• vegetable oil

Method:

1. Pick through the lentils to ensure there are no stones, and wash a few times in water until the water runs clear.

2. Then place the lentils in water and leave it to boil. As the lentils boil, you will notice foam build up at the top of the pan, keep scooping this foam off with a big spoon until the lentils boil. Once boiled, turn off the heat and let the lentils sink to the bottom of the pan. The reason for this is its easier to drain some of the water without losing the lentils. So drain some of the water off the top and refill with hot water and let the lentils boil.

3. In a separate pan, heat up some vegetable oil and fry up the onions, add some hot water to the tomato paste so its runny then add this into the onion mixture.

4. Add the onion mixture to the lentils and mix. Add your salt.

5. Blend the soup if you wish.

6. When serving squeeze some lemon juice and enjoy with crusty bread.

Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 kg peeled pumpkin, coarsely chopped 
• 1 medium potato, coarsely chopped 
• 2 cups chicken stock
• dash of nutmeg (optional)
• water
• cream for decoration when serving

Method

1. Cook onion in oil until softened.

2. Add pumpkin, potato and chicken stock, pour in water to cover the vegetables and bring to the boil.

3. Simmer for 30 minutes, add salt (and nutmeg if you wish).

4. Blend the soup, you may need to do a few batches.

5. Return soup to pan, and reheat gently. Add some cream when serving.

This recipe is suitable to freeze. I have done it before and it tastes just as good. If you plan on freezing the soup, make sure you freeze without adding the cream.