Spiced vegan carrot lentil soup recipe

I didn’t really intend for this to become a cooking blog, but it seems I’ve been doing more of it lately and less eating out, so in between restaurant posts I’ll be sharing some of my favorite recipes with you.

Last night I made one of my favorite soups: spiced carrot lentil soup. It’s incredibly easy and foolproof. Perfect after a long, cold, rainy day at work. I hadn’t made this in a long time, and my original recipe called for milk which I swapped out for almond (but you can use soy) and it tasted just as good. So here’s the recipe. After this, back to Leicester restaurant reviews!

Ingredients

• 600g carrots, chopped
• 1 red onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, diced
• 140g split red lentils
• 1L vegetable stock
• 125ml unsweetened soy or almond milk
• 2 tsp whole cumin seeds
• pinch of chilli flakes
• 1 tbs of oil
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• 1 tsp of salt, or to taste
• Black pepper, to taste

1. Heat a large sauce pan over medium heat and dry fry the cumin seeds and chilli flakes for one minute.

2. Add the oil, then the onion and saute for a few minutes, until the onion becomes transluscent. Add the garlic and saute for another 2-3 minutes.

3. Add the carrots, lentils, stock , almond (or soy) milk, curry powder, turmeric and salt and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes until the lentils have softened, skimming the foam off the top as you go.

4. Whizz the soup with a blender (I use a handheld one) until smooth, and season with salt and pepper.

5. Serve with a squeeze of lemon and an English muffin or chapati

There you have it. I love this soup, it’s so warming and such a comfort food. It also is great for leftovers. When I had it last night we didn’t have chapatis, so I served it with a toasted muffin with avocado and it was very tasty. You can also add a bit of ginger (fresh or powder) to the soup as well if you are so inclined.

I’m off to London for a couple days, but am planning to post a Leicester restaurant review this weekend so stay tuned!