Spice up your Life!

Spicy red lentil soup

La La La La La La La La La
La La La La La La La
La La La La La La La La La
La La La La La La LaWhen You’re Feelin’ Sad And Low
We Will Take You Where You Gotta Go
Smiling Dancing Everything Is Free
All You Need Is Positivity

Colours Of The World
Spice Up Your Life
Every Boy And Every Girl
Spice Up Your Life
People Of The World
Spice Up Your Life
Aahh 

Slam Me To The Left
If You’re Havin’ A Good Time
Shake It To The Right
If You Know That You Feel Fine
Chicas To The Front
Huh Huh And Go Round

Slam Me To The Left
If You’re Havin’ A Good Time
Shake It To The Right
If You Know That You Feel Fine
Chicas To The Front
Huh Huh
Hi Ci Ja Hold Tight

La La La La La La La La La…
I don’t really believe when The Spice Girls sang this song they were singing about red lentils but I don’t care, so I included it…

I also never liked The Spice Girls but I’m totally in love with this soup!

 

 I love lentils! My mum makes the most delish lentil soup and she loves the fact that all her grandchildren love it too! My daughter can’t get enough of it. My mum, however, never uses red lentils. But I do! I use them with lamb shanks and mostly in stews/casseroles.

Some nights I have very strange dreams – I dream that I’m eating a certain food/meal and when I wake up I’m obsessed with this food until I get around to making it. We were having a conversation at work on Monday about using red lentils in a soup – in fact I think my friend was having some for lunch that day. That night I dreamt about red lentil soup – yeah, I know – kinky!  The urge to make red lentil soup for dinner that night was overwhelming.

I’m having left over red lentil soup today for lunch – cannot wait – this stuff is good so go on – Spice up your Life! 🙂

Ingredients

• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 2 cups water
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 inch piece of ginger, grated
• 1 – 2 cups red lentils, rinsed
• 5-6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 red capsicum, chopped
• 1- 2 green chillies  (optional for you and a must for me)
• 2 tbsp good olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tbsp tomato paste or 1 can diced tomatoes
• coriander

Method

1. Pour vegetable stock and water into a pot and set aside.
2. Peel and grate ginger and set aside.
3. Chop onion, garlic, red capsicum, and tomatoes, saute on medium heat in a pot, with 2 tbsp olive oil.  Add ginger and chili. When vegetables are soft, add 2 cups stock/water mixture to the pot and bring to the boil then add the lentils. Add the spices (except salt) and the rest of the stock and simmer until lentils are tender and soup has thickened. (around 25 mins)
4.  Turn down to low heat and allow the flavours to develop for a further 10 mins. At the end of the cooking time, add salt.
5. Use a stick blender to puree the soup or you can use a stand blender.
6. Remove from heat and garnish with paprika and coriander and serve with a huge chunk of great bread with loads of butter! That’s what I did!

Amazing colour! I just wanted to stare at it all night!

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