Tags
bio-medicine, biology, bouillon, Chilli, Chomp, Christmas, cnm, cold, hearty, lentil, nutritious, recipe, red lentil, Soup, spicy, tomato, winter
It’s SO cold!
I know it gets boring when British people complain about the weather. But thats part and parcel of being British. And I also feel justified because I have just come home from a much much warmer climate so need time to readjust and try to understand why on earth we choose to live in such a cold climate!!!
I have had a very interesting few days since coming home. Things are starting to fall into place and little bits of the puzzle are starting to reveal a bigger picture. I know I am talking in innuendoes but it’s fun.
Wednesday afternoon I met with Inspiral. They look like an absolutely great company to work for. That interview was quite the tricky one and I need to brush up on my excel skills to say the least. However, I have a positive feeling that something will materialise. Fingers crossed anyway. They feed their staff a communal lunch every day!! Thats the main reason I want to work there haha! Brilliant recipe ideas. However this is not a definite and we have to watch this space.
Yesterday was a fantastically productive day, really got quickly back into the swing of being home and enjoyed delving into my books to consolidate some of the overload of information I got from my first weekend studying Bio-medicine. I spent about five hours yesterday trying to master the skeleton and the make up of our bones. On the schedule for today is tendons and ligaments and the connective tissues. How exciting.
It was great to talk things through with my mum as she’s a pilates teacher and it meant I managed to apply some of the information to real life scenarios.
This weekend I am mastering the muscular system and respiratory system in two days. You bet I am.
Anyway amongst all that excitement I haven’t had much time to think about cooking so I made a hearty winter classic last night. And to be honest with you I might become rather boring on this blog because me and my mum agreed it’s all we want to eat all through the winter!!
I threw this together very quickly and although I followed a recipe I added my own flare 😉 It was quite challenging yesterday because we had run out of our wonderful Bouillon stock (which I have to say if you don’t use it you must try some!) So I was improvising in order to create some taste with just what I had. Anyway I perfected it this morning and good old mum bought some stock!
The fun part about soup though is that it’s very easy to add a bit of your personality to it. Here I added half a chilli and some picante peppers. But you can really add as much or as little of any ingredients as you want.
Its thick, warming, tasty and nutritious as its full of all the lentils for proteins which are great for filling you up on a chilly day. I love it and want to bring lunch time early because I am excited to eat!
Bon Appetite!
Slightly Spicy Tomato and Red Lentil Winter Soup!
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- 2 celery sticks, roughly chopped
- 1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
- 3 mini piccante peppers (mix of red and orange)
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 1 small (or half a big) red chilli
- 1&1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- sprinkle of chilli powder for added kick
- 200g split red lentils
- 1.5 litres vegetable stock
- 400g can plum tomatoes
- 3 tsp tomato purée
- Himalayan salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 bay leaf
- Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the onion and cook over a low heat until beginning to soften. Stir in the celery, carrot and peppers and cook for a couple more minutes, stirring! Add the garlic, chill, cumin and coriander and cook for a further minute, stirring constantly.
- Add the lentils, stock, tomatoes with their juice, tomato purée and bay leaf. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, then half-cover the pan with a lid and simmer until the lentils and vegetables are very soft.
3. Remove the bay leaf from the soup. Blend the soup in the pan using a hand-held blender, or ideally tip into a blender or a food processor as the lentils need more blending than the usual soup consistency, when texture is as you want then return the soup to the pan. My soup was very thick and I prefer it thiner so I diluted with a little more stock. Season to taste, then reheat until just bubbling and serve! – I sprinkled some fresh coriander on top to serve.
Happy Chomping!