This soup was made up from leftovers in my fridge. A few sad looking tomatoes and red peppers, left over chicken from a Sunday roast and some lentils to add extra protein. It was delicious.
4 large vine tomatoes, quartered
1 red pepper, cut into 6-8 pieces
2 red onions, quartered
4 garlic cloves, skinned
1 tablespoon olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1 stick cinnamon
1 teaspoon curry powder (korma, madras, whatever you prefer)
120g red lentils, washed
leftover chicken, diced
500ml chicken stock
knob of butter
2 shallots, finely diced
1 tablespoons fresh coriander, chopped
juice of lemon
- Preheat the oven to 220c/gas 8/AGA roasting oven.
- Lay the tomatoes, pepper, onions and garlic on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and season, roast for 20-30 minutes until just starting to char at the edges
- Dry fry the cumin and coriander seeds until aromatic, roughly ground in a pestle and mortar. In the meantime add the sunflower oil to the pan, add the cinnamon stick, curry powder, cook for 1 minute and add the cumin and coriander mix.
- Add the roast veg along with the lentils, chicken and stock, season, bring to the boil and simmer with the lid on for 20 minutes until the lentils are cooked. (AGA: transfer to the simmering oven for 20 minutes)
- Melt the butter in a small frying pan, add the diced shallots and cook until crispy (AGA: transfer the trying pan to the floor of the roasting oven for around 5 minutes – keep checking them so they don’t over cook and burn).
- Blitz the soup with a stick blender or food processor, stir in the chopped coriander and lemon juice and serve with some of the shallots sprinkled over.