I love soup, especially in the winter, and this has to be my all-time, go-to, never-let-you-down soup. I have been making ever this since my son (now a grown man) was tiny, and it is still his favourite. He called it ‘red soup’ which has stuck in our house all these years.
It is warm, comforting and like a big internal hug. Taste tested on even the fussiest little ones, this is a sure fire winner. You will never want to eat, gloupy, overly sweet, lack lustre shop bought soup again. It’s so easy and cheap to make this satisfying, delicious, healthy soup, your whole family will love.
You can mix the recipe up a bit too. Don’t have any celery? No problem, it works fine without. Red pepper works instead of carrot, and if you don’t have either you can use a pinch of sugar instead (not as healthy, but the rest of the beautiful ingredients more than carry that).
If you don’t do nutritional yeast, this recipe works fine without, I include it at the end for its health benefits (we use a B12 enriched version), plus it adds a wonderful, umami, richness to the soup. If that’s not your bag though, or if you can’t / don’t want to eat nutritional yeast, you can just leave that out, no problem.
If you don’t have a stick blender, then I encourage you to get one (if you do get one, get a decent one, 600 watts, trust me it makes a difference) – it is a little bit life changing if you like soups (especially if you have kids that are suspicious of ‘bits’ in their food), but it will work fine without, as a more ‘rustic’ soup.
If you have time make extra and freeze some for another day – it is a really useful, quick nutritious lunch in a hurry. It can also double up as a great pasta sauce, or base for a lot of other meals (add a bit of spice to make a quick dahl for example).
Team with some buttered wholemeal bread for a more filling meal, or with a dash of soya cream or top with vegan cheese.
I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Equipment
- Saucepan
- Stick / hand blender or blender
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion diced (white or red)
- 3 cloves garlic diced
- 2 sticks celery sliced
- 1 medium carrot diced (or red pepper works well too)
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast optional but yummy
- 2 400g tins chopped tomatoes
- 150g red lentils
- 600ml vegan stock we use Marigold Bouillon
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp dried thyme
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan and then gently fry the onion, garlic, celery and carrot until the vegetables start to soften.
- Add the tomatoes, stock, and lentils, tomato purée and the herbs. Stir to mix and then bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 – 20 minutes until the lentils are soft. Season with salt and pepper and add the nutritional yeast.
- Remove from the heat and blend until smooth with a stick blender.
- Serve with crusty bread.