Harlequin squash, lentil and carrot soup with Thai flavours

I really adore spicy Thai flavours in a soup (and other dishes!) and felt like it was time to cook such a soup again. It has still been fairly chilly here, which is weird, as it's soon March. Well I'm not complaining, because I still have the excuse to cook wonderful winter food.

So I have made similar soups to this many times, but once again I altered the recipe slightly. I used harlequin squash as the main ingredient, but also added carrots and red lentils to the soup to give it a bit more substance. This was such a comforting soup also due to the fragrant fresh Thai basil and coriander and here's how it was made.

Ingredients

2 onions

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 red chillies

4 garlic cloves

2 cm ginger (roughly same amount as garlic)

1 harlequin squash

1 l vegetable stock

½ cup red lentils

4 carrots

1 lemongrass stalk

3 kaffir lime leaves

160 ml coconut cream

Juice of ½ lime

Soy sauce to taste

1 tsp palm sugar

Handful of Thai basil

Handful of fresh coriander

Method

Chop the onions and cook in vegetable oil until they are soft.

Add the finely chopped garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for about one minute more.

Cut the harlequin squash into cubes and the carrots into slices and add them into the pan.

Sauté them for a while and then add the vegetable stock followed by the lentils.

Add the finely chopped lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves.

Let the soup simmer under the lid at moderate heat.

After a while also add the coconut cream into the soup.

Season the soup with lime juice, soy sauce and palm sugar.

Chop fresh coriander and Thai basil and add them to the pan towards the end.

Once the squash, carrots and lentils are soft, purée the soup and taste if any more seasoning needs to be added.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Your VegHog