Wash red lentils well under cold water in a colander until the water remains clear.

Then bring to a boil in a large pot with water, add salt and bay leaf. Reduce heat to a med-low and simmer for 20- 25 minutes, until overcooked. As you do this, keep skimming off the foam with a slotted ladle and discard.

Turn off the heat and add the bulgur to the hot lentils and mix well. Cover with a lid and let soak for 10 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf.

In the meantime, peel and finely dice the onions.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan and fry onions at medium temperature for 5 minutes until glassy.

Now add paprika and tomato paste and fry them shortly.

Let the onion-pepper-tomato-mixture and the lentil-bulgur-mixture cool down a bit.

n the meantime, wash and dry the spring onions and chop them very finely. Set aside.

Halve the lemon and squeeze out the juice. Set aside. 

Wash flat leaf parsley, spin dry well and chop finely. Set aside.

Mix finely chopped spring onions, juice of lemon, flat-leaf parsley, onion-pepper-tomato mixture with lentil-bulgur mixture and knead well until you get a homogeneous and orange dough.

Season with salt and pepper if necessary.

Form long patties from the mixture and gently squeeze them in your hand so that now your fingerprints are marked on top of them. 

Pour pomegranate syrup into a small bowl and place in the center of a large plate.

Rip romaine lettuce into single leaves, wash and spin dry. Arrange on the plate around the bowl with the pomegranate syrup and place the Mercimek Köftesi on it one by one.

Cut lemon into slices and garnish in between.

Serve the chili flakes in an extra bowl.

To eat, take a lettuce leaf with Mercimek Köftesi in your hand, drizzle some lemon and pomegranate juice on it and sprinkle with some chili flakes. Then roll it all up finely and take a bite. You don't need any cutlery and your hands even stay quite clean.