This delicious Turkish dish is vegetarian and high in protein.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 45 mins |
| Additional Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 pound carrots, cut into thin half-rounds
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ teaspoon ground chile pepper
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup lentils
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- ¼ cup Greek yogurt
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat; cook and stir onion until lightly browned, 5 to 10 minutes. Add garlic; cook and stir until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir carrots, tomato paste, ground chile pepper, and sea salt into onion mixture; cook and stir until heated through, about 2 minutes. Remove skillet from heat.
- Combine water and lentils in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover saucepan, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove lid, increase heat to medium-high, and stir in carrot-onion mixture; cook until liquid is almost all evaporated, about 2 minutes more. Season carrots and lentils with salt and pepper and cool to room temperature.
- Serve carrots and lentils with a spoonful of Greek yogurt.
- Vegetable broth can be substituted for water, if desired.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 351 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 47 g |
| Cholesterol | 3 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 19 g |
| Protein | 15 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 239 mg |
| Sugars | 10 g |
| Fat | 12 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
instead of adding chili powder and tomato paste, I used a good dollop (1 TBL at least) of “Taste of Thai” Red curry paste. It makes the flavor difference.
Super easy and quick to make! I substituted 50% of the ingredients bc I never have staples, but it worked out!
We love this recipe. I used vegetable stock to cook lentils, per other reviews, I added a bit of cumin. I didn’t let it come to room temp-didn’t want to wait. The yogurt made this dish!
Really satisfying. We are old fashioned meat eaters. Hey, you have to try new things. Then try this!
I used vegetable broth. To overcome the blandness others wrote about I tripled the garlic and added 1/8 teaspoon of rosemary, which resulted in quite a nice dish.
I added some chicken broth to it as well.
This was excellent, I used some of my bone broth and Mole’ instead of water and tomato paste. Very tasty. Thanks for sharing.
I used 2 tbl butter 1 tbl of olive oil 1 tbl ginger paste 1 tbl garlic paste no onions and I added 1 cup of frozen collards. I also boiled the lentils with one large chicken bouillon cube. The flavor and color was amazing
I also added cumin – turned out AMAZING!!
I followed this recipe to the letter. It was easy to make but I thought it was quite bland for my taste and needed something more than just the chili powder…hence the 3* rating. However the contrast in textures was great…lentils against the sweet flavor of the carrots! I’d make it again but experiment w/ some seasonings. Bay leaves for sure. Thank you for the recipe!
Great taste, you can also add sausage
I forgot to put in the tablespoon of tomato paste, but we still loved it. Will definitely make again!
This was surprisingly delicious! I used a full small can of paste. Add lemon and some cilantro before serving… Absolutely delicious! Not bland at all and very hearty.
Delicious and healthy.
The recipe was good, but the next time I make I will double the amount of tomato paste and chili powder. It needs a little more kick. I liked that it really fills you up.
I cooked this exactly as the directions called for. It had very good flavor but the problem I had was the carrots weren’t cooked. They were half cooked. Next time I will add the carrots to the lentils cooking and keep them in longer than 2 minutes.
I think as written, this is a four star recipe to me. As others mentioned, it comes out a bit bland. I made it as called for with the exception of cooking my lentils in beef broth. After tasting, I added a half teaspoon of cumin, and maybe a quarter tsp of garam masala. I found this stepped it up a notch, but really what makes the dish is the Greek yogurt (or sour cream) you serve it with. With a little extra spice and the yogurt/cream on top, I think this is five stars. I’ve been looking for budget friendly dishes to work into my line up. I think I’ll make this again.
for non-vegetarians, adding italian sausage does a lot to enhance the flavor.
This was okay, but I probably wouldn’t made it again. Even with all the garlic and onions, it came out rather bland.
This is a keeper recipe for me. I did use a small can of tomato juice rather than open a can of tomato paste. I may try adding curry next time.
Very tasty! I used vegetable stock instead of water . . . added just a little more tomato paste, and then a teaspoon of cumin with the ground chili. Loved it. Oh, and I didn’t even bother with the salt and pepper. Thanks much!