Lots of tomatoes? Tomato & Lentil Soup

I haven’t had a great deal of success with tomatoes this year, whether that’s been the lack of heat in Melbourne’s summer or where and when I planted them (in too much shade and a bit late) I’m not too sure.  It is disappointing but I was lucky enough to be given a bag of home grown tomatoes last week.  It came at the end of a few days in which the kids had eaten few veggies for one reason or another.  Time for Tomato and Lentil Soup!

Tomato and Lentil Soup

• 2 sticks celery – finely chopped
• 1 carrot  – finely chopped
• 1 leek (optional feel free to replace with an additional onion) – finely chopped
• 1 onion – finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic – finely chopped
• 1 chilli – finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• ½ tspn cumin seeds
• ½ tspn ground cumin
• ½ tspn ground cinnamon
• 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock (or water)
• 6-8 medium to large tomatoes ( or 800ml of tinned tomatoes or one large jar of passata)
• 1 medium tomato – finely chopped
• 200g red lentils
• Finely chopped parsley to serve (optional)

Heat the olive oil and add cumin seeds, stir whilst frying for a minute.  Add the celery, carrot, leek and onion and sweat until the onion softens.   Add chilli and garlic and continue cooking over a low heat for a couple of minutes.  Turn up the heat and add tomatoes.  Stir while the tomatoes cook down.  Add the ground spices, stir and then add the red lentils and water.  Simmer until the lentils are cooked.   Season with salt and pepper.  (Salt toughens the skins of lentils so it is always best to season at the end of the cooking time when preparing lentils)  Now you can either serve the soup as is or puree it.  Alternatively I usually remove half the soup from the pot, puree it and then combine with the unpureed portion.   Serve with finely chopped parsley,  perhaps a blob of yoghurt and additional chilli if required.