Lentils are one of my favourite non-meat proteins simply because they don’t require much organisation. Some days you don’t want to be pre soaking pulses for soup, you just want to throw some ingredients into the pot, ignore it for an hour or so, and then enjoy a meal at the end of it. But I wouldn’t eat a bowl of lentils on their own. I don’t go sneaking to the fridge to snack on a spoonful of plain lentils the way I do with cooked chickpeas. Lentils need a little something more. On their own they taste just a little virtuous for me, I think they need to be married with a little fat for balance. That fattiness can come from a wide variety of foods. Whether that be the creaminess of an avocado in a salad, the zing of a saffron yoghurt, or the warmth and texture that comes from the chorizo sausage in this soup. The other kicker to this soup is the drizzle of sherry vinegar at the end. It really brightens up the flavours that have been muted by bubbling away on the stove for an hour or so. Serve it simply, with a little parsley for colour , a little bread to sop up the juices and ideally, a little glass of a rough red wine.
Lentil Soup with Chorizo
Serves 6-8
1 1/2 cups French Green Lentils
2 whole chorizo sausages
300 g ( 10 1/2 oz) pumpkin, cubed
1 brown onion
1 garlic bulb, unpeeled
1 tin tomatoes
1 tablesp sweet paprika
1 red capsicum (pepper), seeds removed and cut into six large pieces
1 green capsicum (pepper), seeds removed and cut into six large pieces
Sherry vinegar , plus salt to serve
1. Wash the lentils and remove any discoloured ones. Put all ingredients except the vinegar and salt into a large saucepan, along with 10 cups of water.
2. Bring to the boil,then reduce the heat and allow to simmer for an hour or so, skimming off impurities every twenty minutes. At the end of cooking the lentils, taste and season with salt as required.
3. Remove the chorizo, and capsicum from the pot, slice into small pieces and return to the soup. Remove the unpeeled garlic clove and the onion, and discard.
4. To serve, ladle into a big bowl, and drizzle a little sherry vinegar over the top.
Adapted from a recipe by Frank Camorra from Movida