By Ippolita Douglas Scotti:
Happy New Year to everybody!
Here in Italy, we spent the holiday surrounded by COVID. We stayed at home, bored and isolated. We did our best to cheer up for the new year with delicious treats and wine—maybe more than a little too much.
It might be time to think about a way to drop post-Christmas and post-lockdown festive weight, detox our bodies, and start taking better care of ourselves for the new year. It is the most important thing right now.
The best way to start is to stay away from alcohol and eat healthy, organic, fresh meals. Boring? No, no, no! It's all in the way you look at it. Why not consider something different to start you out on the road this year? Consider it a gift to yourself, and consider some of these wonderful, delicious recipes from around the world to begin the journey. This week—Turkish Chorba!
Turkish Chorba is a comfort food, gluten free, and vegan, and it is so simple to make at home. It's ready in 30 minutes and is best served with a squeeze of lemon.
Turkish red lentil soup, known as mercimek corbasi, is one of the most popular soups in Turkish cuisine. I personally find its taste very evocative, as it immediately takes me back to Cappadocia.
Lentils are very nutritious. They are packed with B vitamins, iron, and potassium, and they are also high in fiber.
Try this very tasty, velvety soup and your body will thank you! It is delicious!
Turkish Chorba
1 cup dried red lentils 1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped 1 medium carrot, peeled and finely chopped
1 medium potato, peeled and finely chopped 6 cups water
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp sumac Salt to taste
Olive Oil A wedge of fresh organic lemon to serve
Soften the onions and carrots in 2 tbs of olive oil in a large saucepan. Cook until this soffritto is softened.
Add the lentils and chopped potatoes. Now spice with cumin, sumac.
Add salt and water. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to low and cover.
Let the mixture simmer slowly until the vegetables are very soft and fall apart.
Remove the pan from the heat and purée the soup with an immersion or high-speed blender until smooth. Lightly drizzle with olive oil.
This soup thickens as it stands.
Loosen with some hot water and serve with a wedge of fresh organic lemon to squeeze on each serving.
Contessa Ippolita Douglas Scotti di Vigileno is a true Italian—born in Florence, Italy, from a long line of eccentric Italian aristocrats, she has traveled the world in search of adventure, romance, and magical, mouth-watering recipes. "Ippo" loves Italian history, especially as it relates to food. Author of There's a Beatle in My Soup, Curcuma e Zenzero (Ginger & Tumeric), 101 Perche Sulla Storia di Firenze (101 questions on Florence History),The Grimore, The Magic of the Moon, and Magic Herbs (all published by Newton Compton Publishers).