Turkish Red Lentil Kofte
Mercimek Köftesi (Vegan)
Ingredients
- 1 cup red lentil
- 2 cups water
- 1⁄2 cup fine bulgur
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste and red pepper paste
- 1 -2 teaspoon lemon juice (juice of half or whole lemon to your taste)
- 2 -3 tablespoons fresh parsley (approx, divided)
- 1⁄4 cup green onion, chopped (about 4-5 green onions, white parts cut off)
- Red lentil Kofte(prefer iceberg, can use any)
Directions See How It’s Made
- Boil the lentils in the water, uncovered, until they soak up most of the water, about 25-30 minutes.
- Add the bulgur and salt. Mix once and loosely cover to let the bulgur expand, then remove from the heat and let rest on a potholder about 10 minutes to let it cool off.
- Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the chopped onion and cook until soft, about 10-15 minutes.
- Add the tomato paste and cook another 1-2 minutes.
- Add the cumin and remove pan from heat. Stir once the heat is off.
- Add the onion-tomato paste-cumin mixture to the pot with lentils and bulgur, which should be cool by now. Add a few shakes of cayenne pepper to heat it up if you like.
- Add half of your parsley (about 1-1.5 tablespoons worth), the green onions, and lemon juice to the pot, and mix well.
- Take pieces of the kofte out of the pot and form them into kofte shape. The same size and shape
- You can then arrange the lettuce leaves on a big plate and serve that way, but the real deal way to eat them is wrapping each kofte up in a lettuce leaf