After spending 3 days cooped up in a hotel at a work conference, eating very average buffet food and subsisting in rooms without fresh air or natural light I could not think of anything better than a big bowl of vegetable soup for dinner when I got home. This recipe is a combination of others I read and I like it for the simplicity, subtle spice and big hit of vegetables. It’s almost more stew than soup. Garam masala is an excellent one stop spice blend to keep in your pantry – maximum flavour for zero effort and much easier than mixing the spices yourself!
I cut the pumpkin into different sized chunks on purpose so I would have a mix of textures in my bowl, some mushed into the soup and others were intact and sat on my spoon. I served this soup with super yum pan fried roti, which I buy frozen from my local Asian grocer… another excellent ingredient to keep on hand for easy dinners.
Ingredients
- 1 brown onion, finely diced
- 2 sticks of celery. diced (optional)
- 1kg pumpkin (or near enough, diced into chunks)
- 1 big bunch English spinach, rinsed and chopped
- 3 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp chilli flakes
- 1L vegetable stock
- 400ml coconut cream
- 200g lentils (any colour!)
Method
- In a large pot, cook the celery and onion in a bit of oil until softened. Add the spices and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Add the pumpkin, chopped spinach stems, stock, coconut cream and lentils with a good pinch of salt.
- Simmer uncovered for about 40 minutes, or until lentils and pumpkin are soft.
- Just before serving, stir through spinach leaves and cook for a few minutes until wilted.
Side note: For added creaminess, I added a 50g packet of dried coconut milk powder towards the end of the cooking, optional extra!
