Curried cauliflower and lentil soup

I don't know what's going on, but the weather is playing crazy here in England. One minute it's warm and sunny, and then heavy rain and wind the next. Well, I guess that basically is what you'd call an English weather. This can only mean one thing: soup time for The VegHog!

This recipe is not very much originally Indian apart from the spices, but I think that it's sometimes nice to make a comforting curried soup, and all these vegetables go perfectly with the curry flavours. So here are my simple making instructions.

Ingredients

2 shallots

3 garlic cloves

1 small dried chilli

1tbsp vegetable oil

2tbsp Garam Masala spice mix

4 small potatoes

2 carrots

1 cauliflower

About 1l water

1 cup dried red lentils

Fresh coriander leaves

1-2tsp ground turmeric

Naan bread for serving

Method

First make your Garam Masala spice mix (you can also use a ready made one, but making it from scratch is fun!). My instructions for making it are here.

Chop the shallots, garlic and chilli finely and cook them in the vegetable oil in a large saucepan until soft. Peel the potatoes and carrots and chop them coarsely and remove the cauliflower florets.

Add the Garam Masala to the saucepan and then the chopped potatoes, carrots and cauliflower florets. Cook for a few minutes and then add about 2/3 of the water (you can add more later depending on the desired thickness) and the rinsed lentils. Let the soup simmer under lid until all vegetables are fully cooked and the flavour has developed in the desired way. Stir the soup occasionally. Season with fresh coriander leaves and turmeric to taste.

Once everything is cooked and you're happy with the seasoning, purée the soup. Then serve it warm with warm naan bread on the side and enjoy!

Your VegHog