Turkish Lentil Balls with Bulgur with an Ayurvedic Twist – Mercimek Köftesi
This vegetarian ball is one of the most popular appetizers of Turkish cuisine. This well loved Turkish dish is healthy and delicious especially for Vata and Pitta people. As a very easy vegetarian recipe, you just combine cooked red lentils and bulgur with special spices and seasoning and shape into balls. Perfect for entertaining a crowd.
Ayurvedic Chart
• Dosha Effect : VP – K+
• Rasa: Sweet, Astringent
• Virya: Cooling
• Vipaka: Sweet
• Qualities: Heavy, Soft
• Actions on the Doshas: Tridoshic (if cooked with a little oil and bitter spices good for Kapha too)
• Action on the mind: Sattvic
Ingredients
• 1 cup red lentils- washed and drained
• 1.5 cups dinkel bulgur- cracked wheat washed and drained
• 3 cups hot water
• 1 bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 6-7 green pepper, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp pepper paste (not hot)
• 1 tsp freshly grounded black pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp fenugreek powder
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• 1 tsp hingu powder
• 1 tsp coriander seed
• 1 tsp black mustard seed
• 2 tsp Vata churna -including fennel seed, anise seed, cumin seed, turmeric powder, ginger powder
• 1 tbsp cow ghee oil
• 1 tbsp pure olive oil – cold press
• 1 cos lettuce leaves separated
Cook's notes
• Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C.
• As a traditional touch you can add fresh scallion and onion, finely diced and fried in olive oil, but I do not use it in my any traditional and Ayurvedic recipes because they are Tamasic and not appropriate for a Yogic diet.
Instructions
1. Put cow ghee into the pan and heat. Add Vata churna helping digestion and gas especially for Vata people. Mustard seed, coriander seed, turmeric powder and ginger powder. Stir them for 20 seconds to uncover their specialties. Add washed red lentil and dinkel bulgur into the pan and stir them for a few seconds.
2. Boil the red lentils and dinkel bulgur in the water for about 20 minutes or until soft because dinkel bulgur is harder than conventional bulgur and needs to be boiled longer.
3. If you use conventional bulgur, it does not need to be boiled long and you can add the bulgur to the boiled red lentils in the last 2 minutes. Then cover with a kitchen paper allowing it to absorb the remaining water and to let the bulgur expand.
4. Heat olive oil in a pan and add tomato and pepper pastes into another pan and add fresh green peppers chopped, black pepper, cumin, fenugreek powder. Stir and cook until soft adding half cup of hot water. Put this sauce into the dough balls. Let it cool off. Add fresh parsley chopped and mix through well.
5. Form into thick cigar-shaped patties and roll as balls, -Take walnut size pieces and give them ball or cigar shape in your hands. Keep a little bowl of water close by to wet
4 your hand frequently during this process since the balls mixture will get stuck on your hands.
6. You can either place cos lettuce leaves on a serving plate and put balls on top as in the last picture, or serve balls and lettuce leaves separately as garnish, or skip lettuce leaves completely; however, they really go well together.
By Çağan Cinmoyii Gün Işıklı
Turkish Ayurvedic Counselor & Yoga Instructor