Carrot, lentil and coriander soup

"Soup's not for dinner!" Is a refrain often heard in our house, when the awesome and fabulous Anne, my partner, suggests that it is in some way acceptable to serve soup as an evening meal. It is not. And attempting to 'pad things out' with the odd baked potato or maybe some garlic bread just serves to compound the situation. Terrible idea.

BUT... soup is obviously a top option for lunch, and you can freeze it and take it for work, etc. etc. So I make a fair few soups. Here's a good standby, the ever wonderful mix of carrots and coriander with red lentils thrown in to make it packed with iron and give it a little more umami. This dish can be swerved into a slightly more thai direction with a little lemongrass and substituting the soya milk for coconut milk.

Ingredients:

One medium sized onion
230g carrots, chopped
Four cloves garlic
Tbsp vegetable oil
2 litres vegetable stock
Tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp chopped fresh coriander
200g red lentils
150ml soya milk
Black pepper to taste

Method:

In a large saucepan turn the carrots, onion and garlic through in the vegetable oil over a medium heat. This is apparently known as sweating them, rather unpleasantly.

After a couple of minutes add the vegetable stock and simmer for around ten minutes, add the salt and coriander and crack on with the simmer until the carrots are becoming tender. Then add the red lentils, bring back to a simmer, and leave to cook until the lentils are cooked, through - around 15-20 minutes or so - you'll known when it's happened as they start to break down wonderfully and take on a slight fluffiness.

Remove from the heat and in a dedicated blender or with a hand blender in the pan (my preference) blend the soup until totally smooth. Then add the soya milk and blend in.

Serve in posh bowls with some lovely bread, black pepper to taste and a little more fresh coriander.