Is there anything better on a blustery autumn day than a big bowl of yummy lentil soup?! No. There’s not. Traditionally – well traditionally in my Granny’s house – lentil soup was made with homemade ham stock. As you all know, I’m vegan so obviously I won’t be using ham stock, but I add in extra veggies to ramp up the flavour! Autumn is great for load of tasty, filling and nutritious root vegetables, and the beauty of soup is that they don’t have to be pretty! I often use up slightly squishy produce in soups, and it tastes just the same! What’s more it’s INSANELY budget friendly! The whole pot came in around €3.40 and made 6 generous portions, that’s €0.56 a bowl – try offering that to Tesco for one of those pre-made pots of soup!
You will need:
- 2 medium leeks, roughly chopped
- 2 medium carrots, roughly chopped – they can be sad and squishy like mine!
- 3 sticks of celery, chopped
- 1 courgette, roughly chopped
- 1 small turnip, peeled and chopped
- 1 cup red lentils, rinsed
- 2 tbsp vegan stock powder
- salt and pepper to taste
How to make it:
Start by water-frying the leeks and celery. As always you can use oil or stock here if you’d like. Once they are sweated down, add in the rest of the veggies. Top up with water until the vegetables are covered. Return to the heat, bring back to the boil and simmer for 10 mins.
Mix up the stock powder with a cup of boiling water and add to the pot with the vegetables, along with the rinsed lentils. Continue to simmer until all of the vegetables are well cooked and the lentils have started to thicken the soup and disintegrate. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Now this is when you have a choice. You would leave it chunky, if that’s your thing, or you could blitz it up with a hand blender until smooth. I prefer the latter. I also recommend that once in your life you try this with nutritional yeast on top when you serve it, takes it to the next level! One final note to remember – soup is ALWAYS 100x better after being left in the fridge overnight, so try to resist it’s golden goodness until the next day! I never do though, I have to have one bowl straight from the pot after rebelliously blending it while hot [Don’t do this, it’s dangerous!!]. Then I have another bowl the next day and regret wasting the first taste by trying it too soon!
Anyways, hope you give it a go, and let me know what you think! I hope it brings a bit of warmth to your Autumn days!
Hannah Finds Vegan 