Maei’s Lentil Soup “Shorbet Adas”

This week’s recipe comes from Real Housewife of Abu Dhabi Maei Jeneidi.

Palestinian-Jordanian born and raised in UAE. A full time mom and a home based Freelance Translator, smoothly juggling between both. I cherish my family and addicted to my 2 princesses. I love creativity and DIY projects. A big foodie with high appreciation to flavors and ingredients, and run a cooking group on Facebook “Akel kteer zaky”. I never stick to a recipe and love experimenting with food. I enjoy everything spontaneous and make the best out of it. Thankful to God for all his blessings!

Maei’s Lentil Soup “Shorbet Adas”

The Palestinian-Jordanian version, always a winner

Ingredients:

2 cups of split orange lentils, also called split red lentils or Masoor Dal
1 big onion “chopped”
2 medium carrots “chopped”
1 big potato “chopped”
3 tblsp olive oil
2 tblsp flour
1 tblsp salt “more or less, according to preference”
2 tsp ground cumin “more or less, according to preference”
1/4 tsp ground pepper “optional”
1/4 tsp turmeric powder to intensify the yellow color for presentation “optional”
12 cups of boiled water, use 10 only and set 2 cups aside to add gradually if soup is too thick to your preference.
Juice of 1 big lemon
4-5 rounds of pita bread cut into squares, fried or toasted until crisp in oven.
Red radishes, Mediterranean olives, green spring onion, rocca and lemon wedges for serving.
Preparation:

Heat olive oil in a large stainless-steel deep pot over medium/high heat. Add lentils, chopped veggies and flour and mix all together. Add 10 cups of boiled water and bring it all to boil together. Keep stirring with a metal whisk to prevent lentils from sticking to the bottom of the pan due to mixing flour with water and oil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover pot and cook until lentils become soft, about 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes, uncover pot and add cumin, salt, and pepper and give the soup a good stir then purée the lentils right in the pot with a metal immersion blender. I use Braun Multiquick.
If you don’t have one then you can transfer the soup in batches to a blender, preferably glass not plastic, and purée. Return the soup to the pot. Bring it to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Add lemon juice and reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 5-10 minutes.

Ladle the soup into bowls, and sprinkle a few squares of pita bread on top of each serving. Serve with lemon wedges, radishes, olives, rocca and spring green onions alongside.

Note: This is a thick soup, very similar to the consistency of the Mexican Enchilada Soup, if you find it very thick then you can always add more boiled water and let it simmer for extra 5-10 minutes. Add water gradually and stir till you reach the desired consistency.

Toasting/frying Pita bread:
Preheat oven to 350-400°F. Place pita bread squares in a baking tray, toast in the oven until golden and crisp, about 7 minutes. Set aside.
Or
Fry in deep oil for about 3 minutes or till golden brown.
I use my Tefal Actifrier with one spoon of oil to prepare the pita bread.

Cumin and lemon juice lends a unique flavor and aroma to this popular soup, so I always make sure to add them, and I squeeze extra into my bowl, it brightens the flavor.
Shorabat Adas is delicious the next day; just add a little water to the cold lentils, which will be very thick, before reheating it. You can freeze it too in a tightly covered rigid container for up to 6 months.

Sahtain w afyeh  “ Bon appetite”..

Maei Jeneidi
Maei_jeneidi@hotmail.com

Ingredients Vocabulary (Arabic):