Vegan Sweetcorn Chowder

We had this chowder for lunch yesterday and it was so easy and comforting that I wanted to share it. The recipe is from Meera Sodha’s New Vegan column in the Guardian and it is definitely one that will appeal to omnivores as well as vegans. She tops it with chipotle oil, but as I hadn’t got any chipotle flakes – there’s a limit to how many different jars of chilli I can use before they go past their use-by date – we finished it with a little chopped fresh chilli fried in some oil. I’m sure you could use green chilli instead or, for a fresher taste, a handful of chopped parsley or coriander. The soup can be made in advance and just re-heated and the topping added at the last minute. And I think it would make a wonderfully sustaining lunch taken in a flask whether for work or on a winter walk.

The sweetcorn needs to be defrosted before you start but, if you forget to get it out in advance, just put the frozen sweetcorn in a heat-proof bowl, cover it in boiling water and leave for a few minutes; drain and you’re ready to go. The original recipe called for a whole tablespoon of vegetable bouillon for this quantity – enough for 2 – which I thought might be a bit intrusive, so I have cut it back, and the end result didn’t seem short of flavour to us. I normally use coconut milk powder made up with water to avoid having to either eat several meals with coconut milk in or throw away the remains of 400ml cans – not a problem if you are doubling this recipe to feed 4, of course.

Vegan sweetcorn chowder

• 100g frozen sweetcorn, defrosted
• 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 1 leeks
• 1 small onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 250g potato
• 1 rounded tsp vegetable bouillon powder
• 200ml coconut milk (tinned or made up from powder)
• 1/2 tsp cider vinegar or lemon juice
• small red chilli (or 1 tbsp chipotle flakes)
• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil

Start by preparing the vegetables. Trim, peel and finely slice the leek and onion. Peel the potatoes and chop into 1cm cubes. Peel the garlic cloves and grate using a microplane or ginger grater or, if you don’t have one, use a garlic press.

Heat a medium saucepan with a splash (say a teaspoon) of rapeseed oil, add the sweetcorn – which should fit in a single layer – and leave to cook over fairly high heat for 2 minutes. Then stir and leave for another 2 minutes, by which time the sweetcorn should be taking on some colour. Tip it into a medium bowl and put on one side.

Now turn down the heat a bit and add the remaining 2 tsp of rapeseed oil. When it is hot put in the sliced leek and onion and sauté over medium heat for 8 minutes, stirring regularly, until it is soft. Add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes. Meanwhile, boil a kettle of water and dissolve the bouillon in 250ml of boiling water. Add it to the pan with the potato and 1/2 tsp of salt and bring it all to the boil. Simmer for 10-15 minutes until the potato is tender – the original recipe said 10 minutes, but I found my potatoes needed a bit longer.

Put a large spoonful of sweetcorn aside to use as a garnish, and put the rest back into the pan, with the coconut milk and vinegar. Bring back to the boil, then take off the heat and give it a quick blast with a stick blender so the soup ends up thick but with a chunky texture, not smooth. Check the seasoning – it will need pepper and may need more salt or vinegar/lemon juice.

When you’re nearly ready to serve slice the chilli (with or without seeds depending on how hot you like things) and gently fry it in oil for a few minutes. Ladle the soup into bowls, spoon on the reserved sweetcorn and fried chilli with its oil, and thumb your nose at the cold and rain.

Roasted parsnip and carrot soup

When the weather is cold and grey my thoughts turn to comforting bowls of soup, as I discussed in my earlier post Top six soup to banish the winter cold. It’s that time of year again and, although I still cook those soups on a regular basis, I am always on the look-out for new favourites. This recipe from a Waitrose recipe card has shot straight into the list. It has the bonus of being vegan if you serve it with a non-dairy yoghurt.

I love parsnip soups, and although this soup won’t displace Pastenak and Cress Cream in my affections or our Christmas menu, adding carrots and kale and roasting the roots  gives a heartier soup with deep flavours lifted by the zing of cumin and lemon. Zing seems to be a favourite word at the moment, probably due to the fact that I am deeply immersed in reading Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat and watching her series on Netflix at the moment. She uses it to describe how you know when you have got the seasoning of a dish right and it zings in your mouth. And that is what struck me about this soup when Irene made it the first time: it was spicy and lemony and deeply savoury all at the same time.

So we made it again! This time with some tweaks – and an instructive mishap. The tweaks include adding some dried chilli flakes to give an extra kick of warmth, and adding more liquid as we found it was too thick and gloopy with the quantity of water suggested. However, you may like your soup thick in the Italian fashion, and you can always adjust the consistency by adding some water after blending. I  prefer the texture of those classic, light, creamy soups that Elizabeth David describes as being so typical of the French dinner table.

The mishap was with the kale crisps, which we found tricky to get right. The first time they weren’t crispy enough and the pieces of kale too large to eat easily from a spoon. So I tried making them smaller, but didn’t let the oven cool down enough before I put them in and ended up with crisps that were brown and charred, albeit very crispy. We found that making crisps with all the kale leaves made way too many, and having some kale in the fridge is no hardship (but see below). There are lots of great recipes for it, in a salad with quinoa, as a gratin with potatoes or just steamed as a vibrant green side dish. Here’s our version, which will make enough for 4-6 people, depending on how big a bowl of soup you need to lift your spirits in this gloomy weather.

500g parsnips
300g carrots
1 tbsp maple syrup
3 tbsp olive oil
150g kale on the stem
½-1 tsp dried chilli flakes
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic
2 tsp ground cumin
500ml vegetable stock
juice of ½ lemon
4 tbsp yoghurt (or non-dairy alternative)

Set the oven to heat to 200° C. Trim the kale leaves from the stems, which is much easier to do when you buy the kale on the stem, rather than ready chopped. Set half the leaves aside for making the kale crisps, put the rest back in the fridge for another meal, and finely chop the stems, trimming off any scraggy ends.

Peel and trim the carrots and parsnips and cut them into 3cm pieces. Toss them with the maple syrup and 1 tbsp olive oil and put them into a roasting tin (if you’re thinking this doesn’t look like 500g parsnips, you’re right – second time round we made a half batch.) You can line the tin with baking parchment if you want to make the washing-up easier, but I don’t see that it makes much difference. Season with salt and black pepper and sprinkle over the dried chilli flakes – use the smaller quantity unless you want to taste the heat. When the oven has come to temperature put them in to roast for 20 minutes.

Roughly chop the onions and crush the garlic. Put another 1 tbsp of oil to heat in a large pan. When it is warm add the kale stems, onions and garlic with a good pinch of salt. If you don’t have another use for the excess kale leaves, you can shred them and add them to the pot at this point to give a stronger flavour. I added a few leaves as the quantity of stems looked rather meagre.

Cover with a lid and cook gently – and I mean gently – for 10-12 minutes, stirring from time to time until everything is soft and looking golden. If it shows any signs of sticking or browning add a splash of water to slow things down a bit. Don’t skimp on this slow cooking, as I was tempted to do, as it helps develop the flavour of the soup. Then take off the lid, add the ground cumin and cook for a further 3 minutes stirring regularly.

By this time the carrots and parsnips should be tender and golden too. Turn the oven down to 160°C straight away. Tip the roasted roots into the pan and add the stock and 750ml-1 litre of boiling water.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Tear the reserved kale leaves into smallish pieces for the crisps; the original recipe suggests 4-5 cm pieces but we found these a bit big, so I would aim for 3cm. Toss with the remaining 1 tbsp oil, a little lemon juice and some salt and pepper. Spread on a baking tray and roast for 5 minutes. Then check and turn them over and cook for a further 5 minutes. They may need a little longer, but do check them regularly if you want to avoid incinerating them as I did.

Meanwhile blend the soup in batches, adding more water if necessary. Put back into the pan to reheat, and season with lemon juice. We used more than the suggested 1 tbsp, but you may want to start with that and adjust to your taste. Serve with a good dollop of yoghurt (or a dairy-free alternative to keep it vegan), some freshly ground black pepper and the kale crisps. And forget about the January weather for a bit!

 

Bergen fish soup

My friend Philippa made this for us when we had a girls’ reunion in Celra. She had been shown how to make it when she was visiting friends in Bergen. It is simplicity itself to cook, but looks and tastes rather sophisticated. As you can make it with frozen fish fillets and a long-life carton of stock it is a useful store cupboard standby. Any firm fish fillets will work and you can adapt the green vegetables to what you have to hand. Some asparagus spears, a head of fennel, or some cavolo nero all sound appealing. I can see it becoming a regular at our table.

These quantities are for four, served with good fresh bread. The dried herbs are a good addition but not essential. Philippa used a French mixture of dried herbs for fish; fennel seed or dill would work well

We ate a big dish of griddled asparagus beforehand; a green salad – maybe with watercress and fennel or chicory – before or afterwards would be an alternative if you want to serve another course, though the soup is very satisfying.

1litre good quality fresh fish stock
1tsp dried herbs
400-500g salmon fillets (frozen or fresh)
4 medium potatoes
1 leek or a bunch of chives
200gms French beans or peas
200ml single cream
Chopped chives, dill or parsley to garnish

Wash the potatoes and dice into bite-sized chunks. Prepare whichever green vegetables you are using: wash and slice the leek, chop the chives, top and tail the beans and cut into 2-3cm pieces. Put the stock, herbs, vegetables and frozen fish fillets into a large saucepan and bring to a simmer. If using fresh fish fillets or vegetables that need less cooking (such as peas) add them to the soup after about 10 minutes.

Simmer until the potatoes are tender, which should be about 15 minutes. Check the seasoning and add a grind of black pepper if needed. Gently break the fish fillets into large bite-sized pieces and stir in the single cream. Spoon into bowls and scatter with the chopped herbs.

Now repeat on a regular basis…

(Thanks to Sue for the photo)

Carrot and ginger soup

It has been so cold this weekend that soup seemed the best option for a warming lunch, and I wanted something quick and not too heavy as we were going out to dinner. Waitrose have started selling very good value bags of  ‘not quite perfect’ carrots – though they look pretty immaculate to me – so I thought I’d make carrot soup. I used to have it often, but then got bored, and haven’t made it for a while. I fancied a fresh-tasting, really carroty soup with a bit of gingery heat. Makes enough for 3-4.

1 dstsp oil
½ onion
1 clove garlic
a walnut size piece of fresh ginger
600g carrots
750g vegetable stock
Salt and pepper
Handful of parsley or coriander leaves
Greek yoghurt to serve if wished

Chop the onion finely. Top and tail the carrots, peel if necessary and chop into 2cm chunks. Heat the oil (I used groundnut but any neutral oil will be fine) in a large saucepan and fry the onion gently until soft. Meanwhile, crush or finely chop the garlic and peel and grate the ginger. When the onion has softened add the garlic and ginger and cook for another minute or two, stirring so it doesn’t stick. Heat the vegetable stock – I made it using Marigold vegetable bouillon.

Add the carrots, stir them about and then pour on the hot stock. Cover the pan and simmer for 20 minutes until the carrots are really tender. Blend in a liquidiser or with a stick blender and season with salt and pepper. Chop the coriander leaves or parsley and serve the soup with a spoonful of Greek yoghurt and a generous sprinkle of herbs.

As a variation you could add some butternut squash (raw or, even better, left-over roasted squash) for a more velvety soup, or add a small fresh red chilli at the start to make it punchier. You could also top it with the spiced onions from this recipe for lentil and squash soup, or with a swirl of olive oil mixed with the finely-chopped herbs – both of which are dairy-free. This soup won’t win any awards, but it delivered some quick, cheap, carroty warmth on a cold day.

Minestrone

My friends Sue and Steve have been to stay and I was looking for an easy and sustaining dish for an early supper before they headed off to the ferry back to France. I had some lovely Cavolo Nero from the People’s Supermarket, pancetta, carrots and celery in the fridge, and tins of cannellini beans and tomatoes in the cupboard, so a big pan of minestrone seemed like the answer.

I served this hearty soup with sourdough toast and some blue cheese and Rond du Cher goat’s cheese. Afterwards we ate clementines, making the room smell of Christmas. The minestrone was really substantial, so we didn’t have room for anything more than fruit – apples or pears served with the cheese (especially if one was serving a hard cheese) would have been a good alternative. If you wanted to serve something sweet, panna cotta or ice cream would be suitably Italian options and, if eating this at lunch time, an affogato would be the perfect finish (I find drinking coffee in the evening keeps me awake, alas).

Nigella Lawson suggests Minestrone followed by Baked Sauternes Custard as a weekend lunch menu in How to Eat, but to my mind the custard, however delicious, seems a bit too delicate after the rustic heft of the soup. One of the things I really like about that cookbook, though, is the way it puts recipes together as menus, which have given me lots of ideas about how to combine courses – even though I’ve cooked relatively few of the menus exactly as written. So I thought I would follow Nigella’s lead and suggest a menu for an easy weeknight supper.

Easy supper menu

Minestrone
Bread and cheese
Clementines

This minestrone started with the Minestrone alla Milanese in Claudia Roden’s The Food of Italy, which I prefer to Nigella’s recipe as it uses rice rather than pasta, though the recipes are otherwise similar. However, I have used different vegetables and cooked the soup for much less time than the 2-2½ hours they suggest. Both Roden and Lawson use potatoes and courgettes in the soup. Following Roden, I added basil at the end that time, but it didn’t seem quite right in such a wintry dish, so I generally omit it – though I think it is essential to a more summery minestrone, either as sliced leaves or in the form of a spoonful of pesto in each bowl. The result was a heartwarming winter soup, which sent my friends on their way ready to face the rigours of their journey. Serves 6-8.

2 tbsps olive oil
150g pancetta, diced (optional)
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
small bunch of parsley, finely chopped
2 tsp Marigold bouillon powder
1 can Italian plum tomatoes
1 can cannelloni beans
125g french beans (optional)
100g macaroni (or arborio rice)
150g cavolo nero or kale
Freshly grated parmesan to serve (optional)

Heat the olive oil on medium in a large pan. If using pancetta, cook it until the fat starts to melt. Then add the chopped onion, celery and carrot (a mix called soffrito in Italian and the foundation of many soups and stews) and fry until they start to soften and take on a bit colour. Add the finely chopped parsley and garlic and stir until the smell rises from the pan. Boil 1 litre of water and stir into the stock powder in a jug. Add to the pan with the tin of tomatoes. Cover the pan, bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the carrots are tender.

If using, top and tail the french beans and cut into 2cm lengths, or just use frozen ones. Drain the can of cannelloni beans and add to the pan with the french beans. Add more water if the soup has become too thick, and simmer for another 10 minutes. I prepared the soup ahead to this point, then reheated it to simmering point before continuing half an hour before we wanted to eat the next day. This improves the flavour.

Add the pasta or rice and simmer for 5 minutes (10 minutes if using rice). Shred the cavolo nero or kale, add it to the pan and cook for a further 5-10 minutes until it is soft.

Serve as is, with good bread, or scatter over some basil or parsley and freshly grated parmesan, if you wish.

The soup keeps well in the fridge for a few days, and is a great weekday standby for me.

Options:

If you want to make the soup using dried beans, soak 125g overnight beforehand, rinse, then add them to the soup with the tomatoes and stock, and simmer for around 1.5 hours or until the beans are tender.

If you don’t have macaroni and don’t want to use rice, then any small pasta, such as orzo or tubetti, will work and you can even use broken spaghetti. Just check the cooking time on the packet and cook the soup a bit longer if necessary so the pasta is cooked through.

You can also add (or substitute) frozen peas, diced courgette, a diced potato, or leeks. Remember to add a bit more water if you add more veg.

Pastenak and Cress Cream

Here is the parsnip soup recipe I mentioned in my recent post on my top six winter soups. It is a soothing yet sophisticated soup with a pure parsnip taste and the lovely contrasting freshness and slight heat of mustard and cress. It was perfect for a winter lunch today with bread and cheese and clementines (or russet apples would be good) afterwards, but is equally at home served in small portions as starter for a winter feast. I found it in Elizabeth David’s Christmas (what, you mean you haven’t bought it yet? See this post if you’re new to the blog), and it has starred on several Christmas Eve menus. It is supposed to be served with a little bowl of croutons fried in clarified butter alongside, but I have to confess that I have never got round to doing this – I tell myself that it is because fried croutons are bad for me, but it’s probably more like laziness. This quantity serves four amply for lunch, or six as a starter.

500g small parsnips (approx 6)
600 ml thin, clear chicken stock (or vegetable stock if you prefer)
1 level tsp rice flour, potato flour or arrowroot
1 punnet mustard and cress
60-90ml cream

Elizabeth David emphasises that you need young parsnips to make this soup. Scrub the parsnips. Cut out the stem at the top, trim the root and peel off any tough or unappetising-looking skin. You can do this after boiling the parsnips, and it may not be necessary at all if your parsnips are in good nick. I tend to cut them in half lengthwise, so that they cook a little more quickly, but the original recipe cooks them whole.

Put them in a saucepan, cover with cold water, bring to the boil and simmer until soft – 15 minutes if you have halved them, 25 minutes if not. Allow to cool a little (and you can rub off the skins at this stage if you wish – providing you have asbestos hands). Purée the parsnips in the blender (or mouli) with 300ml of the cooking water. I find it easier to get a smooth purée this way, rather than blending the parsnips on their own and then adding the cooking water afterwards as recommended in the original recipe.

Put back into a clean pan, add the stock and season with salt (I used 1 tsp, but the recipe suggests 2-3 tsp) and white pepper if you like (I do). Mix the rice flour or other thickener in a small bowl with a ladleful of soup, then stir this back into the pan and cook gently until it has slightly thickened the soup to the consistency of pouring cream and the soup is hot. Cut off the tops of the mustard and cress with scissors, chop and add to the soup with the cream.

This was originally a French recipe and Elizabeth David explains the derivation of the word pastenak – it is the medieval word for parsnips, a corruption of their Latin name pastinaca.

Top six soups to banish the winter cold

That headline probably ought to be ‘Top six soups to banish a winter cold’ because the arrival of a cold a few days ago, apparently out of the blue, is what sent me scurrying for my favourite comforting soup recipes. Hot, liquid comfort food – ideally with lots of garlic and onions – is what I crave at the moment.

Whether you, too, are suffering a cold, or just want a soup to warm you when you get back from work or a winter walk, here are six soups which should cheer you up. They are all vegetable soups and all but one are vegetarian – from French country onion soup to roasted squash and tomato soup (below).

1) My fail-safe anti-cold soup is Elizabeth David’s Tourin Bordelais, a country recipe for a pale onion soup, served with slices of sourdough rubbed with garlic. I much prefer it to traditional French Onion Soup, and have found it cuts through the most miserable of colds. It is from French Provincial Cooking – still my desert island cookbook, as it is such a pleasure to read, as well as to cook from.

3 large mild onions
1 tbsp each butter and oil
2 egg yolks to thicken, if desired
A few drops wine vinegar

Slice the onions as finely as you can. Heat the butter and oil (Elizabeth David uses pork dripping, but I rarely have any) in a heavy saucepan, and cook the onions slowly, stirring until they start to soften. Season with salt, cover the pan and cook very gently for 30 minutes. The onions should be very soft but still a creamy yellow colour – you don’t want to brown them.

Pour over a litre of cold water, bring slowly to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. If you wish to thicken (I don’t always), beat the 2 egg yolks in a bowl with a few drops of vinegar and a ladleful of hot soup. Return this mixture to the pan and stir until very hot, but NOT boiling (or the eggs will curdle).

The original recipe says to serve by putting slices of French bread baked in the oven into each soup plate and pouring the soup over. I think using toasted sourdough, which has been rubbed on both sides with a raw clove of garlic, is even better, especially if you have a cold. Serves 4-6.

2) A close second is this Lentil and Squash soup, based on Nigel Slater’s Dal and Pumpkin soup and probably the recipe I have cooked most often from his first Kitchen Diaries (my favourite of all his cookbooks – though that is a hard-fought title).

3) Today I opted for Celeriac Soup: creamy, wholesome and easy to make.

1 leek
1 onion
300g celeriac
1 or 2 cloves garlic
20g butter
500ml vegetable stock
3 tbsps single cream to garnish (optional)

Serves 3, although you could thin with extra stock to make enough for 4 more elegant portions. Slice the leek, and dice the onion. Peel the celeriac, and cut into 1 cm dice. Heat the butter in a large saucepan and add the leek, onion and celeriac. Crush or finely chop the garlic and add to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook gently, stirring from time to time, for about 10 minutes until the veg are beginning to soften.

Heat the stock and add to the pan. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes until the celeriac is really tender. Blend using a stick blender or liquidiser, check seasoning and drizzle a spoonful of single cream on each serving. You could also add chopped parsley or all manner of tasty, crispy toppings, but such sophistication can seem a step too far when you’ve got a cold – unless you’re lucky enough to have someone to cook soup for you, of course!

4) Parsnip is one of my favourite vegetables, and over the years I have made a number of different parsnip soups (you can, for example, pretty much substitute parsnip for celeriac in the recipe above). The absolute best, though, is Pastenak and cress cream from Elizabeth David’s Christmas. As I have said before, this book really is a treasure trove of unusual and delicious Christmas recipes. Pastenak and cress cream has become a fixture on our Christmas menus, but deserves to be cooked far more than once a year. Pastenak is the Medieval English word for parsnip, a corruption of the Latin name pastinaca. I particularly love the cress garnish – people seem to have forgotten about mustard and cress in their enthusiasm for putting coriander and flat-leaf parsley on everything, but mustard and cress adds a welcome note of freshness and heat here.

5) This is a recent entrant into my list of favourite soups: Roast squash and tomato soup (pictured, before blending, at the top of this post), originally a Sophie Grigson recipe, which I discovered through the excellent thesinglegourmetandtraveller blog. I think the addition of chilli flakes is definitely a good thing and I also popped about 4 unpeeled garlic cloves into the roasting tin, squeezing the roasted garlic out of the papery cases when I made the soup – as I said above, colds always make me want to eat garlic! The roasting really brings out the flavours and is definitely worth the trouble, especially as you could put the pan of vegetables into the oven ahead of time while you’re roasting something else. This is now my favourite squash soup.

6) Finally, Rowley Leigh’s Chickpea and Spinach soup is a hearty, substantial meal in a dish. It does require advance planning as you need to soak the chickpeas overnight. Although I suppose you could make it with tinned chickpeas, I don’t think you’d get the same texture and flavour as the original. The recipe includes lardons, but if you wanted to make it vegetarian you could omit these, and perhaps add a parmesan rind with the tomatoes to boost the umami flavour.

I hope one of these fits the bill for you too and would be interested to hear what other people find comforting to eat when they have a cold.

Chickpea and Spinach Soup

Rowley Leigh’s recipe from the FT, made by Marlene – really warming and satisfying. For 6

200g chickpeas
4 cloves garlic
1 chilli
1 onion
2 tbsps olive oil
100g lardons or pancetta (cd use smoked bacon), cut in small cubes
2 tomatoes or 100g tinned tomatoes, skinned & chopped
1/2 tsp pimenton picante or cayenne
a generous pinch saffron (if you have it)
750ml chicken stock
400g spinach

1. Soak the chickpeas overnight in plenty of cold water (or put in pan of cold water, bring to the boil and leave to stand for 45 minutes). Drain them, cover with fresh cold water and bring to a simmer. Skim the surface and then add the chilli and three garlic cloves. Simmer gently, not allowing the chickpeas to dry up, for at least two hours or until perfectly tender. Allow to cool in their own liquor.

2. Peel and chop the onion quite finely and stew in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil with the last clove of garlic, chopped, and the lardons/pancetta. After 10 minutes, but without letting this mixture brown, add the tomato and cook for another 5 minutes before adding the saffron and pimento/cayenne. Now add the chickpeas, squeezing the pulp out of the garlic, together with its liquor and the chicken stock. Bring this to a simmer and season with a little coarse salt.

3. Pick the stalks from the spinach and wash the leaves in several changes of water. Heat a large pan with a film of olive oil and sear the spinach until it wilts. Drain, squeeze out any excess water, turn out on a board and chop it quite finely before adding to the soup. Check the soup for seasoning and serve with grilled or fried bread.

You could try making without the lardons and using veg stock and parmesan rind to make a vegetarian version. For more warming soups see Top six soups to banish the winter cold.

Lentil and squash soup

Adapted from Nigel Slater, Kitchen Diaries. Can be made with pumpkin, sweet potato or carrots instead of squash. Very satisfying and comforting winter soup.

1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
ginger – a walnut sized knob
200g red lentils
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground chilli
250g butternut squash, peeled and chopped (c. 2 cm cubes)
coriander – a small bunch, roughly chopped

Peel and roughly chop onion. Peel and crush the garlic. Peel the ginger, cut it into thin shreds and put all three into a good-sized saucepan with the lentils and 1.5 litres of water (or chicken stock if you have any and aren’t catering for vegetarians). Bring to the boil, and boil for 5 mins, then turn down to an enthusiastic simmer. Stir in the turmeric and chilli, season, add the chopped squash and leave to simmer, covered, for 20 mins.

Check that the squash (or whatever veg you’ve used) is soft, then blend (I use a stick blender in the pan). Stir in the roughly chopped coriander and serve. Nice with a spoonful of Greek yoghurt – and good bread.

Nigel Slater serves with spiced onions: 2 onions sliced thinly and cooked slowly in a frying pan with 2 tbsp oil, 2 chillis (take out seeds and slice finely, or use chilli flakes) and 2 cloves of garlic (finely sliced) until soft and brown. This is good, especially when you have a cold, but I rarely do it. Original recipe uses pumpkin, and cooks it separately.