Spiced Autumn soup

Now the weather has turned chilly, it is the perfect time to use up some of my autumn harvests with a delicious and hearty bowl of soup to warm the cockles.
This is an incredibly simple recipe that anyone can make, the part that takes the most effort is cutting the veg up.

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Firstly I chopped up the vegetables, leeks, garlic, munchkin pumpkin, butternut squash (these were all home grown) carrots and parsnips (these were shop bought, as I sowed about a bazillion seeds and the number that germinated were a big, fat zero!) and added them to the pan with a little oil and sweated them off for a few minutes.

Next up, the spices. I added a teaspoon each of Cumin, ground coriander, turmeric and paprika and stirred this into the vegetables.

I then put water into the pan, about a couple of inches above the vegetables and crumbled a couple of vegetable stock cubes in and let it simmer, giving it a stir every now and then.

After about half an hour, I added a third of a packet of red lentils and let it simmer for another half hour, again stirring every now and then.
When the lentils had softened and cooked through, I used a stick blender to blitz everything together, and served it up with some hot, buttered crusty bread.

This is the perfect soup for those cold, winters evenings, hearty with a slight nuttiness from the lentils, and gentle warmth from the spices and utterly delicious.

Toodle pip for now.