Hearty Green Lentil and Broad Bean Soup
Hearty and warming, this soup is perfect for a packed lunch or for a quick dinner.
Equipment
- stick blender (optional)
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 large onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed or diced
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp coriander
- ½ tsp ginger
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp chilli powder or 1 dried red chilli, optional
- 2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1 medium potato, peeled and diced
- 1 medium carrot, diced
- ½ cup dried broad beans, soaked overnight, rinsed and drained
- ½ cup green lentils, soaked overnight, rinsed and drained
- unrefined salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- The day before (or 8-12 hours before you want to make this soup), soak the green lentils and the dried broad beans in some warm water.
- When the beans and lentils are done soaking, melt the butter in a heavy bottomed pan. Saute the diced onion until soft, add the diced garlic and saute for another 1-2 minutes.
- Once the onion and garlic are soft, stir in all the spices and the red chilli and saute, stirring, for a couple of minutes until the spices become fragrant.
- Pour the chopped tomatoes and the stock into the pan and blend with a stick blender until smooth. Or leave unblended if you prefer a chunky soup.
- Drop in the diced carrot, potato, lentils and broad beans to the pot. Bring the soup to boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 1 hour until the broad beans are soft. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.
- Serve hot garnished with some fresh chopped coriander if you like.
Notes
- Instead of chopped tomatoes, you could use 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce or 1/2 cup tomato paste mixed with 1 cup stock.
- To have your soup ready much quicker, you could use 1 1/2 cups fresh broad beans instead of dried beans and only soak the lentils for 2-3 hours before cooking. Your cooking time will also be reduced to about 20 minutes as fresh broad beans are quicker to get tender.