Red Lentil, Chickpea and Chili Soup

Homemade soup is one of my favourite winter lunch dishes. Its warming, filling and, more often than not, healthy. As someone whose favourite dishes tends to be fairly calorific, finding meals that I really want to eat that are satisfying, full of flavour and healthy can be challenging. Luckily for me I discovered this recipe for Red Lentil, Chickpea and Chili Soup on the Good Food website. 

 

 

This soup is wonderfully filling, has a great depth of flavour and is easy to make.

 

To serve 4 you will need

 

2 tsp of cumin seeds

Large pinch of chilli flakes

1 tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, chopped

140g red split lentils

850ml stock (chicken or vegetable)

400g can tomatoes, whole or chopped

½ a can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained

A small bunch of coriander, roughly chopped

Greek yogurt or sour cream, to serve

 

Heat a large saucepan and dry-fry the cumin seeds and chilli flakes until they start to jump around the pan and release their aromas. Add the oil and onion, and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the lentils, stock and tomatoes, then bring to the boil. I used chicken stock because I feel it gives soup a better flavour than vegetable stock, but I'm sure it would be great with vegetable stock too. Simmer for 15 minutes until the lentils have softened. Blend the soup in a food processor or with a hand blender until smooth and then pour back into the pan and add the chickpeas. However, if you would prefer a thicker soup, add the chickpeas before you blend it. Heat gently, season to taste and stir in the coriander. If you don't want the coriander in fairly large chunks then either make sure its chopped finely or add it to pan before its blended.  At this stage I found there wasn't enough chilli in for my liking so added a few more flakes to give it a bit more of a kick. To serve, add either a dollop of yogurt or (like I did) sour cream and enjoy!