Carrot soup with orangemarinated lentils

Carrot is a great fit with ginger, cumin and sour yogurt – the perfect ingredients for a tasty soup. If you’re a carrot enthusiast, replace the water with carrot juice for a more intense flavour.

serves 4

1 onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, crushed Olive oil, for frying and to serve

1tsp ground cumin

1tsp ground coriander 50g root ginger

700g carrots, peeled and coarsely grated 2tbsp concentrated vegetable stock 1L water

Salt

200g dairy-free yogurt

For the orangemarinated lentils

100g dried red lentils Big bunch of flat-leaf parsley or coriander leaves, chopped 1 spring onion, finely shredded

Juice of ½ orange ½tsp harissa or chilli flakes

1tsp ground cumin 2tbsp olive oil

Salt

1 in a pan, fry the onion and garlic in a little oil over a medium-low heat while stirring, for 5min or until soft. raise the heat, add the spices and fry for 2min while stirring.

2 Peel and finely grate the ginger, squeeze out the juice and save it. Discard the remains.

3 Add the carrots, ginger juice, stock and water to the pan. Cover, and simmer over a medium heat for around 15min, until soft.

4. in the meantime, bring 500ml of salted water to the boil. Add the lentils and cook, covered, for exactly 2min. remove from the heat, stir and leave, covered, for 2min. stir and taste

– if they are suitably al dente, you can drain the water. otherwise, leave them to stand for another minute or so.

5 Combine the rest of the ingredients for the marinade and pour over the lentils. season.

6 Blend the soup until smooth and season to taste. Warm it up and top with the lentil mix and a dollop of yogurt. Drizzle with olive oil.

COOK’S NOTE: if you eat dairy products, you can use full-fat yogurt.