You can adjust the amount of herbs and spices to your taste. I like it with lots of spring onions and herbs and prefer a slightly stronger cumin flavor.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 glasses/cups red lentils
- 3 glasses/cups water
- 1 glass/cup fine-ground bulgur (in Turkish köftelik bulgur)
- 10 spring onions or 1 medium size onion
- 2 tbsp red pepper paste or paprika paste
- 10 fresh flat leaf parsley sprigs, finely chopped
- 10 fresh mint sprigs, finely chopped
- 10 fresh dill sprigs, finely chopped
- ½ glass/cup virgin olive oil
- 1 medium size lemon juice
- 2-3 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- Salt to taste
- Lettuce leaves
- Cook red
lentils with 3 cups of water until they are mushy (the ratio of lentil to water
is 1:1.5, so you can adjust the ingredients accordingly if you want to cook for
a smaller crowd or just for yourself…)
- If red
lentils are taking longer to cook and all the water has evaporated, make sure
you add boiling water and cook until the lentils are done. Remove from the
stove.
- Add the
bulgur into the lentils, stir, close the lid of the pot and let it rest. Once
the bulgur is cooked, you will be left
with a hardened lentil and bulgur mixture. Do not worry, once you add all the
other ingredients, it will become softer.
- In the
meantime, chop the spring onions (or the onion) to small pieces and sautee in a
bit of olive oil, add the red pepper paste and continue to stir for another
minute or so.
- Pour this
into the lentil and bulgur mixture.
- Add all the
remaining ingredients (parsley, dill, mint, olive oil, lemon juice, cumin,
pepper and salt)
- Mix
everything together using your hands and knead like dough for a couple of
minutes to blend everything evenly.
- Take medium
size pieces and shape like a finger
- Serve with
lettuce leaves
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