Naturally Vegan & Vegetarian Miracles – A Must Watch! | Soups, Patties, Salads, Pilaf & Even Bread!

Today in Refika’s Kitchen, we’re diving deep into the world of lentils — one of the most humble, healthy, and versatile ingredients on earth. From the famous Turkish lentil patties (mercimek köftesi) to soups, salads, and even meatless “meatballs”, I’ll show you how to turn simple lentils into 10 different delicious recipes!

Lentils are packed with protein, flavor, and comfort. You’ll learn all the secrets to making red lentil soup (Ezogelin), hearty lentil pilaf, crispy lentil patties, and many more creative dishes — all using what you probably already have at home. Whether you’re vegan, vegetarian, or just looking for budget-friendly, nutritious meals, these recipes will inspire you.

03:05 → 🥣 Basic Lentil Soup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap9TaNkEPxg
04:05 → 🥣 Ezogelin Soup (Ezo Gelin Çorbası): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yB4zffdhQo
05:36 → 🍝 Lentil with Pasta / Lentil with Noodles (Erişte)
08:14 → 🥗 Lentil Salad with Couscous : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcAPDyxffKs&t=24s
09:46 → 🍚 Lentil Pilaf (Mücandara) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds_FRJ18Czo
11:16 → 🥟 Lentil Dumplings (Hingel Style from Kars) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4brHonUSCcQ&t=5s
12:37 → 🍢 Stuffed Lentil Meatballs (Vegetarian Kibbeh): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL6NMzQHlVs
13:42 → 🧆 Mercimek Köftesi (Cold Lentil Balls) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O02HGxF22QE
15:33 → 🍄 Bahar Budu Lentil Patties (Abundant Meatball): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2kB-FI1bOo
17:30→ 🍞 Lentil Bread (Gluten-Free): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKJOhs6oNrQ

Savoury Lentil Cake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsTr0QzTEco
Mercimek Wrap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBRa_ur0AU8

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Hello lovelies people of the world. Today we’re going to talk about one of the best things God have sent to us. Lentils as food. Why are lentils very good? They keep you full for a long time. High on fiber, high on protein and it is more affordable than many of the food that we have. When I was a small child in the 80s, unfortunately I was a child in ‘ 80s. Turkey was actually producing 40% of the lentils of the world and we weren’t able to export it really well. So there were big campaigns on the newspapers on the TV of how you can make different things through lentils. As Anatolia is the motherland of many of the legumes that went around the world, lentil was also one of the staples of Turkish cooking. I believe the same kind of love also is in Indian cuisine. So anyone from there if you have different recipes please guys share us what you do with lentils. What are your ancient recipes that you love that you think the world should know and maybe one day we also include those in our recipes as well. Now I want to take you to a journey that we make with lentils. Some of them are very traditional recipes that I’ve learned when I was growing up. Some of the things are the things that I have developed over the years. But before I start, I want to tell you something that many of us probably think that is right but it’s not so right. We have red lentils or sometimes yellow lentils. And then we have the green lentils. Normally these green lentils are famous for what? Being high on protein. And when we look at their data, almost 23% of the green lentils are protein. So if you have 100 g, you have 20 to 22 g of protein from 100 g of lentils. Whereas if you have red lentils, you get 25% protein. So they are kind of higher on protein. They are perceived as they are lower, they’re sweeter, they are, you know, more tastier, but they are lower on protein. So, it is not right. So, keep it in mind. And now I am going to give you recipes starting from soups to meatballs, eat balls without meat. We’re going to have pillows. We’re going to have small tips and tricks. If you’re ready, we can start. What about the protein ratios of the yellow lentils, the black lentils? How are they? I haven’t been prepared for it, but I’m going to write it down because Turkey produces these two and these are the most like famous ones in this part of the region of the world. I haven’t included them, but lentils are such beautiful things. Something that you can do with a red lentil can very easily be turned into a recipe with a green lentil. Vice versa is a bit harder one because it is almost impossible to have a red lentil keeping its own shape. So if you make something like a mujander a pilove, it is harder to make it with red lentils. But if you overcook the green lentils, you can switch all the recipes that are done with red lentils to green lentils. Let’s start with soups. How you turn the lentil into a soup. You put the lentil in, you put a bit of water, then you put a bit of onion, and when they get cooked together, voila, with a bit of salt, you get a lentil soup. You get very similar thing like a doll. If you want to increase the taste, what you do, a bit of butter, just butter could be enough. If you burn the butter in and then add it to the soup, very good. If you want to thicken the soup and add a bit of extra taste, you can put some flour, brown it a bit, make it a r and add it to the soup. Voila, you get a great thing. You can have different toppings to this lentil soup. We have it on the channel. The video is here. from yogurt to a salad, from meatballs to dumplings or manta can get in enrich the soup and make it a main course. So if you have a lentil soup and if you have small bits and things, you can add it to the soup and it might become a main course very easily. So that’s it. The second recipe is moving the lentil soup into a more exciting one which is called esogalen. in the southeastern region of Turkey. The legend says that there is a galin which is the bride wants to cheer up everyone and discovers this beautiful recipe. And to do that we put the lentils in, we put the water in, we put some onion in, potatoes in, carrots in, fry them a bit, add the tomato paste in, then the lentils in. To the mixture, we of course add the water in and then a bit of bular. We want a thick bular. it will thicken even more and it will be a very fulfilling taste. Salt and a bit of red flake pepper or something which is already hot and pepper and a bit of dried mint. You can use fresh mint as well. If it’s a pressure cooker, it will take 5 8 minutes. If it’s a normal stove top, it will take 15 minutes maximum. If you want to get more exciting on it, what you can do, have a bread. I know that in America they are sold in cans. Get a dough. You open the dough a bit and then when it starts to bubble, put the dough in. The dough will rise. Throw it in the oven and then you come up with this dome of great bread underneath cooking some esogan soup which is incredibly beautiful. As I said, the yellow or the red lentils can very easily be turned into green. You can make these recipes the same recipe with green lentils. We also have another recipe. You can eat it as a soup. If you add less water, it becomes a main course. You can put some pasta orish. You fry the onion in. You put a bit of red pepper paste or tomato paste and then says or some kind of pasta. Put the water in, put the lentils in and it starts to boil. After a while, you get an incredible dish. Or if you want to do it more watery, then it becomes a soup as well. And it’s very very easy. You can also do it plain without the pasta. Sometimes you put a bit of minced meat, so it becomes like a stew. When I was growing up in the high school, this was served always on Mondays. Also, when I was working in the hospital, it was again the Monday thing, but it also has a different name called karesim shake. This karesim shake was a very very famous almost like how friends was a big thing. It was then a big thing. David Hesov was the actor. [Music] [Applause] And why would you call these green lentils the kimch? Guess what? You know I remember where do you know you weren’t born yet. Would you like to tell what? Yes, of course. Because the car was very fast. Yes. And when you eat lentil, your system works really fast and you go to the restroom. No, it didn’t. No, no. It gives you gas. Gas is really fast. And when you push gas out, you go fast. [Applause] A very fast air out. That’s a small joke, guys. My favorite dish, by the way. It is very simple. It is very fulfilling. And I was like 52 kilos at the time which was really fit and it is very good for that. So anytime I get on the diet, one of my staples are this lentil dish. I am getting older. So it comes with the price of waking up early. So around 7:00 I wake up after doing few things a bit of sport before taking my dog out. I have a new routine and that is reading your comments. Any comments, especially the positive ones, means the world to me. Anything that you want to share, ask, please ask. I personally reply to those and it became my morning joy. Anything you want me to cook, anything that you want to ask, anything that you want to know, it could be about how we’re doing here, how the world is doing around here, etc., etc., I will be there to respond. So, thank you. Let’s move to a salad. Green lentils are great source of salad. And this was 20 years ago. One of my favorite salads. Again, lentil and a bit of carbohydrate together. Very fulfilling and also kind of light. This salad is done with what we call couscous. In the world, it’s pearl couscous or pasta couscous, which is small round pastas actually. So, you can do it with another type of pasta, whatever you have. You boil the lentils on a separate place. You boil the pasta, rinse it a bit, and then combine them together. What’s really important is what was revolutionary then was the sauce that we made to this combination. We need a bit of sourness and it comes from cucumber pickles. We need some sweetness and it comes from diced red pepper. We need some herbs which are spring onions, dill and a bit of parsley. They get it as well. And the combination of the sauce, we have olive oil, a bit of soy sauce, vinegar, salt and a bit of black pepper. Also an edge and that is the coriander seeds. When we combine all these together, it is delicious. Delicious. And when you combine the sauce, when still the pasta couscous is still hot, fresh water evaporates and it sucks back that very nice salad sauce in. Very tasty, very good. You’re happy that you’re eating something balanced. You get the greens, you get protein, and you also get a bit of carb to feel you’re fulfilled. Everything is there. So let’s move to that to a pilove. One of my favorite pilavves in the world. You get your green lentils, boil them hot, but you don’t throw away the water. Put a lot of water. And we need that brownish, blackish water in. First, we get some onions, a lot of onions, slice them, and we start to brown them. When they are kind of caramelized, you take half of it out. Then you put the rice in. The rice gets that caramelized onion flavor in. And then you get the water of the lentils, that black brownish water. Wet your rice with that. When it’s boiling, you add the cooked lentils in as well. And on the side, you start to cook more of the onions. They become crunchy like chips. And I like more crunchiness, so I add a bit of sesame seeds as well. Then when it is done, you get that pilove with a crunchy onion flavor on top. It is 100 times more tasty than how it looks. It is gorgeous. Mind-blowing. What is also great, we made the pil with what? Olive oil. And the beautiful thing about the olive oil, it can be eaten hot or it can be eaten cold. So when you go to Cyprus, hope you go to Cyprus, you’ll get this beautiful carpazi for example, and then you see the sea and on the side you eat this called pil. So, it is also a great mess. Mind-blowing. What’s next is I want to take you from Cyprus to the mids of the cold Anatolia which is cars. You have to see the cars. Normally in winter you go with the dogs there and they take you on the lake as well. But when you go there in June, it is springtime of cars. Normally June is summer everywhere else in Turkey, but there it’s the spring. You see the fields and fields of very nice, incredible flowers. It’s a flower show and the car’s honey is incredible. So keep in mind anyways a recipe from there. And then what is it? You create a dough. We have a version so I won’t get into detail here, but I’ll give you the idea. You prepare a dough. You boil it or make kind of like pasta kind of thing. Put a bit of onion. You put the red pepper paste and then the lentils. Put some hot water in. They grow in size and becomes meaty. You need a bit of cumin to increase the meat taste. Put those boiled pasta kind of thing called hing and on top some yogurt with a bit of garlic and on top lentils come in. Guys, it is incredibly mind-blowing taste. You have to taste it one day. We had the salads, we had the soups, we have the mezz kind of things. Also the last one I told you could be a main course, could be a mez. Now I want to take you to the land of meatballs. Again, Anatolia is land of meatballs. I would like to give you three recipes. One is the stuffed meatball bular and I want Mr. Burakarpak if possible to tell it. Then I’m going to give you two more meatball recipes but after him. For the ichi, first we make the dough. For that we need fine bular. We adding egg whites, some boiled potatoes. It holds everything together. Cumin and red pepper paste. We make the dough and we rest it a little bit so we can shape it. For the filling, you can always add some mushroom. It adds some texture. Of course, they are delicious. We need some onion. Brown it. Then we add some boiled lentils. Then we add some garlic. It’s going to be the fling. Always wet your hands when you are shaping the dough. Stuff then close. Then you can fry. You can air fry. You can even boil. You can even steam. But by itself or with yogurt, it’s delicious. You can make it with meat, with potato, with cheese. That’s all. Bye-bye. Then we have a classic Turkish dish called the lentil kuft. Marime ku. Actually, it’s cold. Maraj ku is a cold dish, but if you want to eat it hot, you can make the patty and fry it on the sto and it will again a hot dish as well. But usually it is served cold and it’s so great. How do you make that? We put the red lentils in with a bit of water. Let it pop like we’re making soup. To that we add some bular and the bular gets that hot water of the lentils in and they become one. They literally get married becomes a very nice hard thing. To that we need to add some taste. Fry a bit of onions. We add tomato paste, red pepper paste. Then it becomes this warmish thing which has a lot of taste. So we take it to our hands, open it to a tray, add that mixture in, a bit of cumin, a little bit of black pepper, and we mix it really well until it becomes a kuft, a meatball consistency. As Burak said, if it’s like sticking too much to your hands, you can always wet your hands and then shave the ka afterwards. But before, always some greens are added to those things. If you eat a kebab, put a lot of onions and a lot of parsley in. or if you eat a lama maju. So we get that greens and veggies and fiber together with those things. That’s what anatolian cooking is mostly about. What middle eastern cooking what Mediterranean cooking is adding a lot of veggies to very tasty stuff so that without realizing you eat a lot of veggies happily and you become fit. So the greens are spring onions, parsley get in, they add color. If you want it hot, you can always add red flake pepper as well and then wet your hands and put them in shape. They’re really great. And I said, don’t forget, you can always fry it afterwards. That would be great. Another thing that is dedicated to this lady here, actually, as I said, like some of them are really classic recipes. This one is not. She cried one day. Anyways, she became a vegetarian. So, she wanted food that she missed. And one of those things were kadun. Yes. And then we made that kuft called the bahar budu. So bahar budu is now the name of the kuft. If you’re ready, would you like to tell how to make it? No, I can’t tell how to make it because I’m just the eater. You make it, I eat it. Okay. Also, we have the recipe on the channel. We have it here, but I want to summarize it. We boil a bit of lentils, 3/4 of a cup. We have 300 g of mushrooms. Half of it we chop and fry it a bit. We put the mushrooms, we put the lentils in, and we put some rice in and an egg as well. Then we put a bit of spice which is all spice. Very nice spice. One spice creating five different spice tastes at once. It’s not a mixture. It’s just one spice itself. Cinnamon, black peppers, and if you have a ka mixture, if you don’t have it, a bit of cumin and cloves. Cloves goes so well. Then we add a bit of dill and parsley. We mix it really well. Shape it. Beat a few eggs. We dip our cuffes in flour, then in eggs, and then fry it. You can also use the air fryer. It becomes gorgeous. I have taste some very traditional people who like kadunu and some people didn’t realize that even it’s not meat, it’s lentils and mushrooms. Don’t forget mixing lentils and mushrooms as a filling as Burak’s recipe as in this recipe. The juiciness of the meat comes from the mushroom. Some other qualifications of the meat comes from the lentils. So both of them together create that meaty feeling very naturally. You don’t need any kind of processed food to create that. So one of the most I think powerful sides of green lentils comes from this when they are combined with mushrooms. I have to say this was one of the best gifts you have ever given me. Really? Yes. I thank you so much. So last but not least, making bread which is gluten-free from lentils is heaven. You can do it from green, yellow or red. We have the basic recipe and I think we have the cake version of it as well. The basic recipe goes like this. I make it so much that I’ve memorized it. Four to 500 g of lentils. Put it in water. Yellow few hours. Green is better if it’s overnight. We take the water out, put it in the blender. Then we add few things. Yogurt, four eggs, two packs of baking powder, a bit of salt and olive oil. Blend it really, really, really well to fine. Olive oil the pan. Put the mixture in. Put it in the oven or the air fryer. It will grow and it will be like a really really good bread. If you wanted to make it more exciting, put a bit of cheese, spring onions, some herbs, olives, then etc etc. Make it like a savory cake. Or you can put some cocoa, chocolate or those kind of things and take this of course this excess salt out etc. It can go to a cake like texture from a savory thing to a brownie kind of texture. The lentils gives you that base very very well from that basic mixture. We save few on the side and make creps as well. I think there was Barak’s recipe I want to include it to the end of the video. He has two extra bonus recipes. So if you use Instagram, please follow him in Instagram as well. He has very nice videos. Bahar says, “What am I doing?” So okay, follow her as well, guys. If you haven’t followed me, follow me too, please. Jokes aside, lentils are incredible. And if you have watched the video until now, I hope I took you to a nice journey. I hope. And there are so many other things to do. So if you don’t want to miss it, subscribe to the channel. Also, your emotional support, writing a nice comment or sharing it with your loved ones means the world to us. We really need that support these days, guys, emotionally and all kinds of other ways. Take care.