Warmly spiced red lentil & tomato soup
Ingredients
1 medium onion
1 large carrot
1 leek
2 sticks of celery (with leaves if they are available)
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp vegan butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt & a good few grinds of pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp Aleppo pepper flakes or 1/2 tsp chili flakes
1 medium sweet potato (optional, see note above)
250g (1 cup) red lentils
2 x 400g tins of tomatoes
2 fresh bay leaves
1.5 litres (6 cups) vegetable stock
Instructions
1. Peel and chop the onion, carrot, leek and celery (including any leaves) into small 1cm-ish pieces. They don’t have to be perfect - you are going to blitz everything together at the end.
2. Place a medium or large saucepan on a medium heat and melt the vegan butter and olive oil together.
3. Add the chopped vegetables, season with salt and pepper and sweat gently until the onion becomes soft and translucent (5-7 minutes), stirring occasionally.
4. While they are cooking, slice or chop the garlic and peel and dice the sweet potato.
5. Once the onion has started to soften, add the garlic, cumin and Aleppo pepper and cook for another minute or two to allow the spices to release their flavour.
6. Rinse the lentils in a strainer under cold water and add them to the aromatics in the pot with the chopped sweet potato and tins of tomatoes.
7. Cover with the stock, throw in the bay leaves, bring to a gentle boil and simmer for 30 minutes or so until the lentils are cooked and the sweet potato is soft.
8. Cool until its no longer scalding hot, remove the bay leaves and blitz in a blender, food processor or with a soup wand until smooth and creamy. You may need to add a little more liquid depending on the age of your lentils and how much stock they absorbed while cooking.