🍲 Iraqi Lentil Soup (Shorbat Adas)
Iraqi shorbat adas is a thick, smooth red lentil soup cooked with onion and carrot and seasoned with cumin and turmeric. Many families stir in a handful of toasted vermicelli near the end, which gives the soup more body. It is served piping hot with lemon wedges and is a staple of winter evenings and Ramadan iftar in Iraq.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 250 g red lentils, rinsed
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 40 g vermicelli
- 1.3 l water
- Salt; lemon to serve
Method
- Soften the onion and carrot in the oil, add the cumin and turmeric.
- Add the lentils and water and simmer 20–25 minutes until soft, then blend smooth.
- Toast the vermicelli in a dry pan until golden and add it to the soup.
- Simmer 8–10 minutes until the vermicelli is tender. Season and serve with lemon.
How to make it lighter
- Halve the vermicelli or leave it out for a lighter bowl.
- Toast the vermicelli without oil.
- Squeeze in plenty of lemon instead of extra oil for flavour.
History
Lentils are among the oldest cultivated crops of the Fertile Crescent, and lentil soup is eaten across the Arab world. Shorbat adas is especially associated with Ramadan, when a bowl is often the first dish served at iftar. In Iraq it is often cooked with a little vermicelli.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →