Lentil Bowl, Zehra

Zehra Ibrahimhakkiogl 400A The Lentil Bowl Do you know which food affected me when I came to Atlanta? It was lentil bowl. My mother cooks it very deliciously, and I like it so much. I had not eaten lentil bowl in Atlanta by the time a Turkish woman invited me to her home and served it. When I entered her home, the food’s smell was all over the house. I didn’t know what she cooked, but the smell reminded me of my favorite food. It surprised me because lentil bowl is the best food for me, and I had missed it a lot. Before going there, I had been sad and angry with my self because I was thinking, “Why didn’t I learn how to make it?” When the woman invited me, I found an opportunity, and I got the recipe for the lentil bowl. I want to share this recipe with you. Now, maybe you are waiting for a very complex recipe. It is not complex; however, you should be very careful and pay attention to the time when you cook it. This is the important point in the process.If you wait too long after adding hot water to the mixture of lentil and bulgur, the mixture will get very soft, like dough. If you wait a short time, the mixture can’t get soft enough, and it can be hard, like a pebble. After this important warning, I’ m going to describe the recipe for you. You need one glass of lentil and one glass of bulgur. You mix it and add two glasses of boiled water. For soaking the mixture, you wait forty-five minutes. When it is been soaked, you chop up two green onions. You put one bunch of fresh parsley, two green onions that you chopped up before, half teaspoon red pepper, one tablespoon tomato paste, two table spoons olive oil, and juice of three lemons in a big bowl. You mix all of these ingredients. After forty-five minutes when the mixture of lentil and bulgur gets soft, you add it in the bowl and mix all of them together. If you want, you can add salt, how much you want. After mixing, you take a small piece of the mixture in your hand and roll it. You put lettuces on a tray and arrange lentil bowls on lettuces. This is the hard part because it takes long time. If you want, you can decorate the tray with lemon slices. Now, the lentil bowl is ready to serve. When you are reading this recipe, I’m sure that it doesn’t make any sense to you, but it is very significant for me. Whenever I eat the lentil bowl, I read the recipe, or cook it; I remember the day that the Turkish woman invited me and served the lentil bowl. I got the recipe in this day, and I learnt how I can cook it like my mother’s lentil bowl.