Week 9 Pass it On: Lentil and Spinach Soup

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This past week has been a bit gray, not quite rainy and not quite warm so I was inspired to make a soup from the Food Revolution's chapter Simple Soups. For those who are not familiar with the pass it on premises. I am making one recipe (sometimes two if it is a matching veg) from Jamie's Food Revolution. A cook book that focusses on delicious recipes that anyone from the the novice to the  experienced home cook can make! The aim is to get more people cooking at home, eating better and learning about food. At the beginning of the book Jamie Oliver challenges his readers to make one recipe from each chapter and then pass it on. So I am passing it on to my food community. Enjoy, make & share!

I really enjoyed this soup, but I enjoyed it more the next day. The flavours had time to meld together and become more complex. Either immediately or later this is a warm hearty soup for less than stellar days. It also makes good use of staples and and fresh in season veggies (all you CSA people, who get a good share of spinach this one is for you).

Lentil and Spinach Soup

• 2 carrots, peeled & diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 2 medium onions, peeled & roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled & sliced
• 1 3/4 quarts stock, chicken or veg (2 litres)
• olive oil
• thumb size piece of ginger, peeled & finely chopped
• 1/2-1 fresh chile to taste, seeds removed & sliced
• 10 cherry tomatoes, cored & halved
• 2 cups red lentils (or another variety that prefer, but you may have to adjust cooking times)
• 7 cups fresh spinach, torn of large
• 1 whole lemon, juiced plus more to serve (not in Oliver's recipe but trust me!)
• 1 cup natural yoghurt

Get the first four ingredients ready, then in a separate pot bring your stock to a boil, keeping hot, set aside.

In a lage sauce pan on medium heat, warm approximately 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add carrot, celery, onions & garlic, cook with lid slightly skewed for about 10 mins or until the veg is soft but still holding together.

Meanwhile get ginger, chile and tomatoes ready.

Add boiling broth, lentils (I used whole red lentils that doubled my cooking time), ginger and chile to the sauce pan with the veg. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. Cook with the lid on until the lentils are done.

Add the spinach cook for another 30 seconds. Season with salt & pepper and the juice of one lemon.

You can either serve it as is or use an immersion blender to make it smoother. Serve with a dollop of yoghurt, freshly diced chile and a wedge of lemon.

Serves 6-8 (as if, I will be eating it for weeks)

Pass it on to your friends and families.... and if you blog about it link it to my blog!

(hmm- not getting my link to work, check back for it)

photos by me.