This is such an easy soup recipe and will keep you feeling warm on these chilly winter days. It can be ready in 30 minutes and is all done in one pot, no blending required. The spices can be adjusted to suit your taste and you can leave out some if you don’t have a well stocked spice cupboard. That said, buy SOME spices though, cos if you don’t know how to flavour your food what are you even doing?!

I make a batch of this on a weeknight and then freeze anything I’m not going to eat in the next two days. Having a freezer full of ready to go healthy food means that you’re way less likely to have days where you’ve got no lunch to take to work. This saves me money and the annoying task of finding something healthy to eat at work.

Especially as I don’t always know if I’ll be working the next day (relief teaching) so doing lunch prep when I don’t know if I’ll be running off to work in the morning or staying at home at recipe testing (that’s the reality of my life most weeks) is annoying. I’ll always lunch prep if I have pre booked works, but on the ther days I usually grab something from the freezer and run out the door. A freezer full of soups and curries is a life saver.

But back to this particularly soup. it’s full of fibre thanks to the chickpeas, veggies and lentils and this also means it’s really filling. The warm spices add a little flavour kick and I’ve written the recipe with the spices in order of importance. Try to use at least 3 but don’t stress if you don’t have all of them.

Happy stirring!

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp sumac

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

2 Tbs chopped coriander root and stem

1.5 cups finely diced carrot

1 clove garlic, crushed (optional)

1/3 cup finely diced spring onion, or onion of choice

4 cups stock (chicken bone broth or vegetable stock)

1/2 cup red lentils

800g canned tomatoes, organic

400g canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup coriander leaves

1/3 cup finely chopped spring onion

4 Tbs plain or greek yoghurt (optional, to serve)

Directions

Place olive oil, onion, coriander root/stem, garlic, spices and carrot in a medium pot, cook on medium heat for 1 minute, add 1 cup of stock and cook down until the carrots have softened. This should take a few minutes. Add the remaining stock and lentils. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the chickpeas and tomatoes and bring to a boil.

Turn down to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Check seasoning.

Serve with the remaining spring onion and coriander on top and a dollop of yoghurt if using.

HH. x