Thursday, March 9, 2017

Chunky Vegetable and Lentil Soup



I am quite particular about soup, I'm not a big fan of the blended variety. I get bored eating it by the end of a bowl, and prefer something with a bit of actual eating to it. Any time I've made a batch to last for the whole week, I end up binning half of it. My favourite soup to get when I am out and about is the Chunky Vegetable Soup from Itsa Bagel, and I always thought it would be quite easy to recreate but I never really got around to it. A couple of weeks I finally decided to give it a go.



It worked out better than I thought and was a great lunch. It doesn't look identical to the one from Itsa Bagel, and it has been a while since I've had but it tasted pretty good. It lasted for the week in the fridge in work, and if anything the flavour got better as the week went on. I didn't try but I am pretty sure that it would freeze well. I got 5 big portions out of mine, which worked out at 6 smartpoints each. The whole recipe is 28 smartpoints though, so you could divide it into bigger or smaller portions and work out the points accordingly.

Serves: 5
SmartPoints per Serving: 6
SmartPoints on No Count: 0 
Ingredients:
1 very large onion
350g carrots
half a head of celery
4 cloves of garlic
1 red chilli
150g red lentils
150g green lentils
1 tbsp olive oil
1.5 litres vegetable stock (1 cube)
Salt & Pepper


Roughly chop the onion, carrots and celery; you are looking for them to be quite chunky but still 'bitesized'. Finely chop the chilli and garlic & rinse the lentils well.

Heat the oil in a large pan and gentry fry the garlic and chilli for 2-3 minutes over a low heat. Add the onions and cook for a further 3-4 minutes until its all just soft. Add the carrots and celery, fry for a minute and then add the lentils and stock. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the lentils and vegetables are tender.

Season to taste and serve! Easy peasy!


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