Easy pumpkin, potato & lentil soup.

Season: Winter (Waring)

Servings: 5 Time: Prep 15mins Cooking 30 mins

Winter is the perfect season for warm comfort food. This Moroccan inspired soup is easy to make and is an excellent way of supercharging your veggie intake. A good bowl of this soup contains four serves of vegetable and thanks to the lentils, almost 1.5 serves of protein.

Use any type of pumpkin and potato that you have on hand. One sweet potato can easily replace the two potatoes called for in this recipe. You can also play around with the spices and consistency of the soup. For those trying to reduce their salt intake, ditch the store-bought stock. Use water or make your own salt free veggie stock instead.

For active families, serve the soup with whole-grain bread to increase the kilojoule count.

If you are one of those weird people who can't stand coriander, garnish with some chopped rosemary. This soup is a good source of fibre (13 grams per serving) and contains plenty of vitamin A, vitamin C and iron.

Ingredients

1.5 kg pumpkin, chopped

1 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed

2 large potatoes chopped

1 cup dried red lentils

1 tsp garam masala

pinch of black pepper

pinch of paprika

pinch of sumac

pinch of ground cardamom

1-litre vegetable stock

Garnish

yoghurt

coriander leaves

ground sumac

Method

1. Heat oil in a large heavy-based pot. Saute garlic and onion for a few minutes, until softened.

2. Add the remaining vegetables, lentils and spices. Cook for a few minutes, occasionally stirring until the vegetables start to take on some colour.

3. Add the stock, simmer for 15 minutes or until lentils and vegetables are soft.

4. Blend to desired consistency.

5. Garnish with yoghurt, sumac and coriander leaf.

Energy: 1,720 kJ per serve

Low Fat

Low cholesterol

Good source of fibre

Vegetarian