Although I like a spiced soup, sometimes there is nothing better than a hearty bowl of plain lentil and vegetable.
Red lentils dissolve in the soup, and act as a really lovely thickener. If you want a thinner soup, then simply add more stock to the soup once it is blended, until you reach the desired consistency.
I prefer to use chicken stock, as I think it enhances the flavour, but you can easily swap it out for vegetable stock if you want to make it vegetarian.
It's also easy to replace the butter for a little more oil, if you'd like to make it vegan.
Extra virgin olive oil
25g butter
1 medium white onion (approx. 170g)
150g celery
200g carrots
170g leek
150g red lentils
250g chopped tinned tomatoes
800ml chicken (or vegetable) stock
Seasoning
- Peel and roughly chop the onion, carrots and celery.
- Top and tail the leek(s) and roughly chop.
- Melt the butter and a drizzle of olive oil, in a large pan, over a low heat.
- Once the butter has melted, add the chopped vegetables and stir well until the vegetables have started to soften.
- Add 700ml of the stock, tomatoes and lentils and mix well to combine.
- Season well and mix again.
- Bring to the boil, then cover and cook on a low heat for 20 minutes.
- Blend the soup until is smooth.
