Chorbet elades recipe — Coral lentil soup

A bit like we do for fattoush salad, we like to sprinkle this simple soup with crispy pita chips when serving.

Ingredients
1.25 liters (5 cups) water
190 g (1 cup) red lentils
¼ tsp. teaspoon of salt
1 onion, diced
80 ml (1/3 cup) olive oil, plus a little more for frying
1 fresh pita bread, cut into pieces
Ground cumin
Aleppo pepper

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the water, red lentils and salt to a boil. Boil 2 minutes. Reduce heat and cover. Cook for 40 to 50 minutes or until a thick soup forms. Meanwhile, in a skillet over medium-high heat, sauté onion in olive oil for about 10 minutes, or until caramelized. Pour the onion and its oil into the pan. In the same skillet over medium-high heat, fry the pita pieces in olive oil until crispy. Divide the soup into bowls. Top with fried pita pieces and sprinkle with cumin and Aleppo pepper.

Excerpt from the book “Syrian cuisine, a cuisine of the heart” p.69.

The Levantine cuisine quartet