A wholesome soup on a cold winter's day is just the right sort of comfort food for me. I am a great fan of soup, more often than not a lunchtime favourite in our home. Throughout my childhood (and adult life) I use to love coming home to my mothers special soup. She would boil a smoked hock for hours (in those days they didn't cost a fortune), add a packet of old fashioned soup mix and a few vegetables and voila, a lovely inexpensive warming meal. It was always accompanied with a pile of hot buttered toast, the thick slab variety of course!
Over the years I have made a similar recipe. I am sure you will have one that your mother passed onto to you but somehow the best soup was what our mother made. She never really went for anything fancy, maybe a potato and leek soup now and then, but usually she would just make the old faithful. She wasn't a fan of fancy spicy food and seldom cooked it - it gave her indigestion!
Over the years I have tested and eaten a few variations of my personal favourites, tomato, chicken and vegetable, mushroom and leek and potato. I also like to experiment with garnishes. I have coriander growing in my herb garden at the moment - a little coup for me as (in Summer) I allowed a huge plant to go to seed and now I have lots of tiny little coriander plants growing 'luxuriantly', perfect for this soup.
For this recipe like most soups, everything goes into a pot and boiled gently for hours. Although I made it in my slow cooker, it can easily be cooked in a soup pot on the stove. It makes a really nice change and I love the flavours and the simpleness of the recipe. For my soup I used Pataks Mild Indian curry paste as I am not a great fan of really hot spicy food (gosh, I sound a bit like my mother!), but adjust the curry paste to suit your own tastes.
Depending on how small you chop your vegetables, you may like to lightly mash the cooked vegetables in the final stages, as it could easily be a stew by cutting the vegetables into large chunks.
For this recipe like most soups, everything goes into a pot and boiled gently for hours. Although I made it in my slow cooker, it can easily be cooked in a soup pot on the stove. It makes a really nice change and I love the flavours and the simpleness of the recipe. For my soup I used Pataks Mild Indian curry paste as I am not a great fan of really hot spicy food (gosh, I sound a bit like my mother!), but adjust the curry paste to suit your own tastes.
Depending on how small you chop your vegetables, you may like to lightly mash the cooked vegetables in the final stages, as it could easily be a stew by cutting the vegetables into large chunks.
Serve it with Naan bread and use it to scoop up the chunks like we did.
Either way I am certain you will enjoy it. It is super yummy!
Spicy Lentil Soup - Australian Women's Weekly Slower Cooker Supplement - June 2013
Serves 4 - 6
Ingredients
½ cup (100g)
dried lentils
1 litre (4
cups) chicken stock or vegetable stock
400g canned
diced tomatoes
2 dried bay
leaves
3 cloves
garlic, crushed
¾ cup (100g)
mild Indian Curry Paste
2 small
carrots (240g) chopped coarsely
1 stalk of
celery, finely sliced
2 medium
potatoes (400g), chopped coarsely
½
cup Greek-style yoghurt
½ cup finely
chopped coriander
Method
Rinse
lentils under cold water and drain
Combine
lentils, stock, un-drained tomatoes, bay leaves, garlic, curry paste, carrots,
celery and potatoes in 1 4.5 litre (18 cup) slow cooker.
Cook covered
on low for 6 hours, season to taste.
Serve soup
topped with yoghurt and coriander.
Suitable to
freeze (without the garnish).
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