An all year round lentil soup – not just for winter!

This lentil soup is on high rotation during the cold and hot months in our house. It is a family favourite, my eldest daughter absolutely loves it. She always asks for seconds although i fill up her bowl completely. I often make double the amount and freeze it in portions for days that I don’t have time to cook a complete meal. The ingredients are so basic but oh sooooo good!

I use the brown lentils because they are smaller and they go well with a soup I think, plus the cooking time is reduced. However, if you can’t find them by all means use green lentils, the main difference with this recipe will be in the extra cooking time.

To remove the “gritty” taste that the lentils have I like to boil the lentils twice for short periods of time.I find that there is no residual flavour after that.

All the fragrances just work so well with the rest of the ingredients. I know a lot of people don’t quite like the taste of coriander so you can replace it. However, I do think it’s not too overpowering and in this case it adds a kind of freshness to the lentil soup. The red wine vinegar is a must though, as it brings all the flavours of the lentil soup together and adds a really nice taste.

My favourite sides with the lentil soup would have to be black olives and dried rusks. I usually have a packet of barley rusks i buy in the pantry but i also make my own rusks from days old bread. It can be easily done by cutting the bread in 2cm thick slices and placing them on an oven tray in a single layer. You can then place the tray in a preheated oven at the conventional setting at 180^oC. Let it bake for about 40min or until the bread is completely dried.