Red Lentil & Tomato Soup

This is a recipe I got from my mother, and what I love about it is how quick it is. All-in-all it doesn’t take much more than 30 minutes to go from a craving for soup, to tucking in, and most of that time is just to let it boil! You can easily make this soup while you are cooking the rest of the meal or doing some house work.

Below are the list of ingredients, you’ll get four good portions out of these amounts:

3 Cloves of Garlic (Mum only uses two, but I much prefer three)

1 Onion

170g of dried Red Lentils

a 400g tin of chopped Tomatoes (I like to use organic)

850ml of Vegetable Stock (I use a gluten-free Vegetable Bouillon instead)

Parsley (ideally fresh, but dried will do in a pinch)

Salt & Black Pepper

Start by chopping the onion. Add some oil to the bottom of a large pot (I like to use half vegetable and half olive oil) then add the onions and let them cook over a medium heat. It’s best not to be too frugal with the oil, if you do, the chances are the lentils will stick to the bottom of the pot later on.

While the onions are sizzling away you can crush the garlic, measure out the Lentils, and prepare the stock. When the onions are soft, add the stock, garlic, lentils and tinned tomatoes, and stir it all together. Increase the heat to bring the mixture to the boil, remembering to stir from time-to-time to stop things sticking to the bottom of the pot.

When the mixture comes to the boil, turn down the heat and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. You should notice that the lentils which had initially sunk to the bottom start to really swell up as they absorb more and more of the moisture, and start to rise to the top. You’ll have to stir occasionally while the mixture simmers to stop the lentils sticking to the pot. The more oil you used initially, the less important this will be.

After the 20 minutes are up, take the soup off the heat and blend. Then add the chopped fresh Parsley or the dried parsley. If you’re using fresh you need to add 1-2 table spoons, but if you’re using dried you should add a little more. Finally season with salt and black pepper to taste. The soup has a lot of flavour naturally, so be careful with the seasoning, it’s easy to over-do it. And that’s all there is to this lovely thick wholesome soup. Definitely great on cold winter nights!