Armenian cucumber soup, a Malayer specialty

Ingredients

• 1 kg of Armenian cucumbers (khiar chanbar)
• One head of garlic
• 2 tablespoons of dried mint
• 250 ml of Kashk
• 200 g of lentils
• 150 g of bulgur
• 3 onions
• 200 g of lamb or beef
• oil
• salt, pepper
• 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs (optional)

Soak the lentils for a few hours, then cook them with the bulgur in 750 ml of water.

Cut the meat into pieces, brown it with chopped onion, add 750 ml of water, and let it simmer.

Once the broth has reduced by two-thirds, add the cooked lentils and bulgur.

Peel the cucumbers, cut them in half, remove the seeds, and dice them into half-moons; sauté them in a little oil until they are tender but not mushy.

Heat the remaining onions and chopped garlic in the oil with salt and pepper until browned. In a separate pan, lightly brown the dried mint for about one minute in a small amount of oil.

Add the cucumber, half of the garlic, and half of the onion (which should have been fried) to the soup.

Once the ach has thickened, season with salt and pepper, and add the kashk; let it simmer for 5 minutes before removing from the heat.

Serve with the remaining fried garlic and onion, kashk, mint-infused oil, and, if desired, crumbled bread.