Souper soup on Saturdays

Each weekend through the winter I make a batch of soup - there has to be enough to do at least 4 portions for us over the weekend, and then ideally enough for me to have for lunches through the week. Whilst soup runs the risk of being an uninspiring lunch, I do enjoy putting different flavours together to stay interested.

The soups I usually make are vegetarian and it's rare I buy 'ingredients' as it were, I'm much more likely to look at waht's leftover in the fridge and then add that to spices, pulses etc to amp up the flavours.

Whilst I've been making soup on and off for years, at the moment my motive is about saving money - buying lunch can work out at about £4-£5 a day, which when you're on a budget, works out at a scary £120 per month. In comparison, taking your home made soup works out at around 50p per portion (if not less).

I've mentioned before that I'm no snob stock wise, bouillon or cubes are both fine by me, I just always watch the salt content if I am using bought stock.

This week I made a spicy carrot soup - I made it a bit quicker to cook by grating the carrots in the food processor (but you could easily do this by hand, or be less demanding and give the soup some time).

Spicy carrot soup

Olive oil
7-8 big carrots, grated
Half a cup of red lentils
1 litre veg stock
1 teaspoon Gran Luchito smoked chilli paste
2 teaspoons cumin seeds

Dry fry the cumin seeds until they start to pop
Put the carrots, lentils, cumin seeds, stock and chilli paste into a big pan and bring to a simmer
Cook for 20 minutes to half an hour
Take off the heat and blitz - I use a handheld stick blender
Serve with crusty bread and butter for dunking

 Other soups I've made:

Lifechanging soup
Tomato and cannelini bean
Chicken soup
Split pea and frankfurter

I'll try and keep updating - this week's concoction is Sweet potato and butternut squash (with a sneaky secret ingredient)