I’ve been holding off on posting this recipe as it’s not really mine, but I couldn’t think where it came from. And then, when searching for something else, the website came up. The original recipe that this is based on is from The Mediterranean Dish website – it’s a great site, well worth a look.

Mine’s a little bit of a dumbed-down version – less herbs and spice, but it suits us.

Ingredients

1 Potato
1 Carrot
1 Onion
1 Celery stick
1 Garlic clove
2 Tbsp Olive oil
¼ tsp Cumin, ground
¼ tsp Rosemary, dried
½ tsp Oregano, dried
½ tsp Thyme, dried
1 Bay leaf, dried
120 g (4¼ oz) Red lentils
1 Tbsp Tomato puree
1 Tomato (about 75 g / 3 oz)
1 tsp Salt
⅛ tsp White pepper, ground
1000 g / 1 litre / 2 US pints Chicken stock or water
Juice of half a lemon
1 Tbsp Parsley, chopped
Extra virgin olive oil to garnish

Method

Chop the veg – you don’t have to be fancy with it as the soup will be liquidised later.
Heat the oil in a pan, then add the chopped potato, carrot, celery and onion. Turn the heat down to low, cover the veg with a baking paper cartouche, put the lid on the pan, and leave it to ‘sweat’ for 10 minutes.
Add the garlic, herbs, salt and spices; cover and ‘sweat’ it for a further 5 minutes.
Add the tomato, tomato puree, water/stock and lentils; bring to the boil and cook until the lentils and veg are soft; remove the bay leaf, then liquidise. I use a stick blender to do this.
Just before serving, mix in the juice of half a lemon, sprinkle the chopped parsley, and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

This makes about 3 bowls of soup like the one pictured. You may want to make more – it freezes well.

Other soup recipes:

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