THE RECIPE

Makes: Serves 4

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped (185g)
• 1 medium potato, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes (180g)
• 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes (170g)
• 2 celery stalks, cut into ½cm cubes (90g)
• 250g split red lentils, rinsed
• 1.2 litres hot vegetable stock
• ⅓ tsp ground turmeric
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• Salt and black pepper
• 2 tsp dried mint, plus more for serving
• 1 tsp Aleppo chilli flakes (or regular chilli flakes), plus more for serving

To serve: 2 lemons, peeled and cut into ½cm dice • 5g fresh coriander leaves • 1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and slightly crushed

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, until softened.
2. Stir in the potato, carrot and celery, and cook for 2 minutes more.
3. Add the lentils, stock, turmeric and cumin and bring to the boil, then partly cover the pan and cook on a low heat for 20 minutes, until the lentils are mushy.
4. Add 2 teaspoons of salt and a good grind of black pepper, then stir the soup and remove it from the heat.
5. Ladle out 750g of the soup into a tall jug and blitz with a stick blender until smooth (you can also do this in a free-standing blender).
6. Return the blitzed soup to the pan, add the dried mint and chilli flakes, and simmer gently on a low heat for 2 minutes.
7. To serve, ladle into bowls and top with the chopped lemon, coriander leaves, toasted cumin seeds, mint and chilli flakes. Drizzle with a little olive oil and serve.

Ready in under 30 minutes, but tastes like it hasn’t been. Leftovers can be transformed into lentil fatteh the next day — just reheat and add chunks of bread.