You can alter the ingredients in this soup to your own taste.  It is lovely to add roasted squash or sweet potato or any other veg to make it more substantial.

Ingredients

  • 1 heaped tbsp coconut fat
  • 1 medium red onion, sliced into half moons
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and either sliced or crushed
  • 2cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
  • 150g red lentils (I soak these overnight but you don’t need to), rinsed and drained
  • 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
  • 1 x 400g tinned coconut milk
  • 1 x tsp ground coriander
  • 1 x tsp ground turmeric
  • 2 x tsp ground cumin
  • ½ to 1 x tsp chilli flakes (depending on how spicy you like it)
  • 500ml water or stock (you can use chicken or veggie)
  • Small bunch of fresh coriander, chopped
  • Salt and pepper

Method

Heat the coconut oil in heavy bottomed saucepan on a medium heat. Fry the onions until soft and slightly caramelized – you may need to turn the heat down and add a tablespoon of water to stop it sticking and burning, stirring frequently. Cooking the onions until caramelized gives a lovely flavour.

Turn the heat down and add the sliced garlic, spices, chilli and ginger and fry for a couple more minutes, stirring to make sure the spices don’t burn.  It should smell fragrant.

Add the lentils and tomatoes and stir for a minute or so.  Add the water or stock and bring to the boil, turning down the heat until it is gently bubbling and cook for 10 minutes.

Add the tin of coconut milk (it may have separated which is no problem – either whisk it in a bowl before using or put straight into the lentil and tomato mix and stir until incorporated).

Bring back up to bubbling and let it simmer until the lentils are cooked – about 20 minutes.

Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired.

Divide the soup into bowls and sprinkle with chopped coriander.

Variation: you could add a chopped medium sized sweet potato or ½ a butternut squash chopped with the lentils/tomatoes and then you will have more of a curry than a soup, which could be eaten with rice or chappatis. Cauliflower florets would also be lovely but add these when you add the coconut so it doesn’t get too soft.