Tomato, lentil and spinach soup

I got the bare bones of this recipe from the wonderful Jamie Oliver Network, I recommend you take a visit over there if you're ever in need of some inspiration.

As you can see from the pictures we have made it a few times - every time it's different depending what ingredients I have around - do I want to add a bit of this or that, goujons instead of bread to serve as a tea time meal, for lunch topped with mushrooms or sunflower seed and cheese.

I've also made it and turned it into a stew with  boneless skinless chicken thighs, courgettes, butter beans and chorizo (see below).

As with all soups it's extremely easy to make, it contains some super healthy ingredients, once you've whizzed it all up those veggie-phobes in your house will be non-the-wiser, stick a blob of something they love on top - cheese, low fat soft cheese, Greek yoghurt, fried onions, chopped chicken (the choices are endless) and then serve it with your favourite bread, or some home-made flat breads or bread sticks, what about some delicious sweet potato fries (my current favourite food!)?


My version of recipe goes like this (don't forget you can get the original here)

Put a dash of olive oil in a large saucepan and turn on a medium heat. Add a chopped onion, 2-3 chopped cloves of garlic, 2 chopped sticks of celery and the chopped stalks from a small bunch of coriander (save the tops to sprinkle on the soup when you serve). Fry together for about 5 minutes until the onion is soft and translucent. Sprinkle over 1 tsp of turmeric and 2 tsp ground cumin. Fry for another minute. Next add 2 chopped sweet potatoes (medium sized chunks) and 6 big tomatoes (the nicest ones you can afford, chopped into rough chunks). Fry for about 5 minutes to warm everything and incorporate the ingredients. Then add 350g red lentils, stir and pour in 1 litre of stock (of your choice, vegetable would be ideal, chicken is fine).
Let the ingredients cook until the potatoes are soft, then add a couple of large handfuls of spinach (more or less depending how much you love spinach - we really love it, which is why our pictures show a quite green soup, less spinach will make a more orange soup).
Once the spinach is wilted, take the pan off the heat and whizz your soup however you like. You could not whizz it, whizz it smooth or leave some texture, then it's ready to eat straight away as it is. You can season it with salt and pepper now if you like too. Or top it and served with a little something on the side.

It really is as easy as that. It's filling enough to make be enough for tea, but ideal for a warm lunch, great for taking to work.

It's the cumin that really makes this for me - I love it's flavour so much, but I'm sure if cumin is not your thing you could sub it with something else like paprika and the swap the coriander for parsley or thyme (not the hard stalks though).

It's got a lovely texture where you know you're eating something wholesome and the spices and sweet potato give it a richness and that fulfilling feeling when you continue to taste something long after it's been swallowed!

Give it a try, it's definitely at least one of your 5 a day!

As a chicken stew with butter beans, chicken thighs, courgettes, extra spinach and chorizo. A great way to use up left overs, add in a tin of tomatoes if you want it more juicy. Served with some home made stove top spinach flavoured English Muffins.