Simple Curried Lentil and Vegetable Soup
A quick and easy midweek meal that you will love!
The weather is warming up here in Australia so thought I better share this recipe before it gets too hot to be eating soup! I love a good soup and it is one of my favourite things about winter. My partner Che makes delicious sour dough daily so when I have a big pot of soup in the fridge there is always a simple dinner sorted in minutes. Only problem is the small people in our house claim “we are not into soup”. They are generally pretty good eaters so I find this incredibly frustrating! Doesn't stop me making soup though. The upside of the girls not liking soup is being I can make it as spicy as a like as I know they won't be touching it.
If you follow my recipes you may notice that I have a slight addiction to curry powder. And I don't mean fancy curry powder, I mean Keens. It's so good! It tastes like comfort to me and I can't get enough. My all time favourite way to use curry powder is to make my curry salad dressing served with a fried cauliflower, quinoa, cashew and sultana salad.........but this recipe comes in a close second. Simple with a slight spicy kick and easy adulterated with some nice crispy fried curry leaves, fresh chilli and garlic yoghurt. Or if you are in a rush its still delicious by itself.
Oh and did I mention this soup is super healthy? Full of delicious vegetables and plant protein. Bonus it's also vegan and gluten free plus I've included a FODMAP friendly adaptation for those on the the FODMAP diet.
I've opted to use canned lentils in the recipe for ease. You can of course cook your own. You could also mix it up and use red lentils (note they will not hold there shape but that doesn't matter) or substitute one of the cans of lentils with chickpeas for a bit of variety. Same goes with the vegetables – just use whatever is in season or you have in your fridge. Pumpkin would work well instead of sweet potato and you could use cauliflower or broccoli instead of zucchini. Some spinach or silver beet would also make a great addition, add it as your turn the soup off and let the residual heat cook the leaves.
This soup freezes well and will last for at least 5 days in the fridge. The best thing about soup is that it tastes even better the day after making it. So make up a big batch, store some in the freezer for your next emergency meal and pack some away to take to work for lunch.
Simple Curried Lentil and Vegetable Soup
Serves: 6
Prep time: 1 hour
Dietary guide: This soup is vegan and gluten free.
FODMAP friendly adaptation: Replace the onion with ½ a cup of chopped green spring onion and only use the green part of the leek (or omit). Replace the garlic with 2 teaspoon of garlic/garlic and onion infused oil. Keep your serving size small (about 1/8th of the soup per meal) to make sure your don't consume too many lentils – the safe amount is ¼ cup/46g of lentils per serving.
Ingredients
1 large onion diced
½ a leek diced
1 ½ tablespoons of olive oil
3 garlic cloves crushed
1 teaspoon of ginger finely minced
3 teaspoons curry powder (more if you like it spicy)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon garam masala
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon of sugar
400g of tomatoes (canned or fresh)
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
1 small sweet potato peeled and cubed
2 vegetarian “chicken” style stock cubes
2 cans of brown lentils drained
2 zucchini's cubed
Fresh cracked pepper
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
2 tablespoon of roughly chopped fresh coriander
To serve
20 fried curry leaves
Garlic yoghurt (or vegan coconut yoghurt)
Fresh sliced chilli
Instructions
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and leek and cook for a few minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and stirring often, cook for a further 5 minutes until it starts to turn a little golden. Add the spices, continue to stir until the spices start to stick to the bottom of the pan.
Add the bay leaves, sugar, tomatoes, tomato paste, sweet potato, stock cubes and 5 cups of water. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a low to simmer. Simmer gently until the sweet potato is almost cooked
Add the cubed zucchini, lentils and more water if needed. Continue to simmer until the zucchini is al dente. Add the lemon juice and pepper and taste – adjust for seasoning (salt, pepper, sugar, lemon juice) if needed.
Serve with fried curry leaves, garlic yoghurt and fresh chilli.
