Thank you so much to Alex and our friends at the Vegetarian Society for this delicious recipe. We made it on the day the Suma cooks spent at the Cordon Vert Vegetarian cookery school. The soup is quick, easy and best of all delicious – you have to try it out!
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 sticks celery, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 3cm piece ginger, peeled & grated
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp turmeric
- ½ tsp cinnamon powder
- 1 ltr vegetable stock
- 400g tin of chickpeas, drained
- 50g tomato purée
- 100g puy lentils
- 1 tsp sundried tomato paste
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes
- 2 tbsp flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp coriander, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp celery leaves, finely chopped
- Serves 4-6
- Prep time:10 mins
- Cooking time 50 mins
- To Serve:
- 2 preserved lemons, cut in pieces
- 1 small tub of harissa
Method:
- Get a large saucepan and heat the olive oil up in it. Add the onion and celery then fry gently for about 10 minutes until it has started to soften.
- Add the garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric and cinnamon to the base and cook gently for a further 3 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the spices from sticking.
- Add the stock and bring to the boil.
- Add the puy lentils, chickpeas, tomato puree and tomatoes. Leave the soup to simmer for 30 minutes.
- Now add the fresh herbs and the cornflour/water mix. Stir in well before leaving to cook for a further 5 minutes.
- When it’s time to serve place the soup into soup bowls or a soup terrine and drizzle a bit of juice from the lemon over the top.
- Finish by adding a good spoonful of harissa in the middle of each bowl and top with the chopped lemon (if serving from the terrine serve the harissa separately in a small bowl and let people help themselves.)
What is the correct recipe for Harissa paste? Is it made up of Rose water, chilli's and Lemopn juice?