Green Lentils

In the winter, we love to cook dry grain like chickpeas, beans which are very common and we serve it with rice pilaf. When I was growing up I loved the green lentils that my nany cooked,  I loved to fish the dish for the small dough pieces.  It was a simple dish, nothing fancy but I always felt warm when it was cooked. I had not cooked it for a long time, in Bodrum we hardly have cold wheather and in the restaurant we cook more fancy, this was one of those dishes you would love but would not be appropriate to serve to guests. Today the wheather is grey and  it feels very cold and wet. I thought, ok today is the day for my childhood dish. I hope you will enjoy it.

Ingredients ;

3 Cups of green lentils
1/5 cups of vegetable oil (I use sunflower oil)
1 large onion chopped
250gr (8.8 oz) ground beef or lamb (you can also replace the beef with sausages and it would be a great dish for kids )
1 carrot diced
2 spoons red pepper paste
1 can peeled and diced tomatoes or 1 cup sun dried tomatoes.
salt, black pepper.

For the dough
1 cup flour
2 eggs

Directions :

Soak the lentils in water for minimum 3 - 4 hours.
Make a hard dough with 2 eggs and some salt. It should be little harder than the bottom of your ears.
(That is a very culinary term in Turkish-  kulak memesi kıvamında)  make very small footballs with the dough. If you do not want to mess your kitchen with the flour you can always use pasta 1 cup would be enough.

Stirfry the chopped onions in oil, after they look soft add the ground beef and keep stirring once the meat is cooked add chopped tomatoes, carrots, pepper paste and 3 cups of water cook until the carrots
are cooked than add the dough and cook for about 20 minutes more.

We love to add a little redwine vinegar on the plate when eating this dish.

Afiyet Olsun ! ( Means bon apetit)