Recipe – Buttered Lentil Soup – Food Fitness Family

When we were growing up, I often remember Mum cooking up a big batch of soup on a Saturday for lunch. There was always some sort of activity on a Saturday morning – swimming, music etc, and it was always lovely to come home to a warming bowl of soup. We used to have a bakery at the end of our road and often we’d walk down to get fresh bread. I don’t think their baguettes were exactly authentic, they always used to bend in the middle and were really doughy, but they did the job in terms of having something to dip in your bowl!

My favourite when I was really little was “Sunshine Soup”, so called because it was a yellowish hue, although unfortunately Mum could never quite remember what actually went into it (I’m sure it was different every time). A close second was this lentil soup recipe. I’m not entirely sure where the original recipe came from, but I discovered a dog eared photocopy recently when Daisy was asking for soup for lunch, and made it with a few tweaks of my own.

The finished soup is really thick but you could thin it down a little if you wanted to by using more stock or a splash of milk for added creaminess. Lentils are a great source of plant based protein and fibre, and the carrots, tomatoes and onions mean that a serving gives you 2 of your five a day. Don’t be afraid of using real butter in this – it really does give a delicious taste to the end result!

This makes four servings, so I often make a batch at the weekend and freeze for lunches during the week.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion

150g carrots (peeled weight)

500ml chicken or vegetable stock

200g dried red lentils

1 400g tin chopped tomatoes

25g butter

Method

Peel and dice the onions and saute gently in the olive oil for about 5 mins

Peel and dice the carrots and add to the onion. Saute for another five minutes