’Ezo the Bride’ (Red Lentil and Bulgur Soup)

Ezo the Bride is a famous figure in Turkish folklore. Her real name was Zöhre Bozgeyik and she was born in 1909 in southeastern Anatolia. She married a local musician and, following the regional Berdel tradition, her brother married her husband’s sister. A few years later, her brother divorced his wife, which meant that although Ezo dearly loved her husband, she had to follow local custom and separate from him. Beautiful Ezo was forced to travel to Syria and marry a distant relative and,