Laura’s Fall Curried Pumpkin And Lentil Soup Recipe

Ingredients (makes roughly 10 good sized portions):

• 1kg diced fresh or frozen pumpkin/butternut squash

• 3 large brown onions, roughly chopped / roughly diced

• 5 large carrots, roughly sliced (skin on or off, up to you) or a bag of frozen carrots

• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped

• 3 spring onions, roughly chopped

• 1 teaspoon Oregano

• 1 ½ heaped teaspoons of mild curry paste (I prefer Pataak’s mild curry paste but you use whatever you prefer, including curry powder if you wish)

• 1 thumb sized piece of ginger, finely diced

• 3 cloves of garlic, roughly sliced into small pieces

• 1 tin of black beans, drained and rinsed

• 1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed

• 1 tin of green lentils, drained and rinsed

• 250g/1 cup of red split lentils, thoroughly rinsed

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil (optional)

• 2 vegetable stockpots

• Water

• 1 small tub of plain soured cream

You will need:

• 1 large stock pot. I’ve found this works best in a large stock pot if making the quantity above, but you can use a slow cooker or very large casserole dish if making smaller quantities.

• Chopping board and sharp knife (ideally a Chef’s knife).

• Measuring cups and measuring spoons.

• A hand blender.

Method:

1. Add the coconut oil (if using) and olive oil to the stock pot and give it about 30 seconds to heat up.

2. Once heated up, add the onion and allow to soften for about 5 minutes, then add the pumpkin/butternut squash and garlic. Continue on high heat, stirring every few seconds to prevent burning.

3. Turn down the heat to about medium, add about a cup of water and add the sweet potatoes, carrots, spring onions, ginger and oregano and stir everything together. Continue on the heat for about 15 minutes.

4. Rinse and drain the chickpeas, black beans and green lentils and add these. Then rinse the red lentils and add these also. Mix everything together. Add the vegetable stockpots and enough water to cover everything, then turn up the heat to full again.

5. Once the mixture is boiling away, add the curry paste and boil for about 10 minutes.

6. After 10 minutes, check the liquid level. Remember this soup is meant to be very thick and hearty but the lentils absorb a lot of water while cooking so if it looks a little low on liquid, add just a little more water if needed and turn the heat down to just below medium for about 40 minutes leaving the lid half on half off. Cook until the lentils are soft and tender.  

7. Allow to cool for about 30 minutes before blitzing and pulverising with the hand blander. Serve with a dollop of soured cream in the middle of the soup and warm crusty bread rolls.