Sweet potato, cauliflower and red lentil soup

Now that there cooler weather is here, a big bowl of beautiful soup can take away those chills and those pesky belly rumbles too.                                                                               There are so many reasons to make your own soup; I find that making your own batch of soup is lighter on the pocket, because there are less expensive ingredients like meat in a soup that in a non-soup dish; it is an excellent and palatable way to use up 'past-their-prime' vegetables; it's relatively quick to make; it's healthy and you can stretch soup further to feed more people by serving it with bread or cheese.

Here's my recipe for a filling vegetable soup featuring red lentils; the yummy soup is high in protein and fibre and a great way to help kids eat vegetables that they otherwise might not, like cauliflower.

What you will need

Serves four

1 cauliflower, core and leaves removed, broken into small florets

1kg sweet potato (about 3 medium or 2 large), peeled and chopped into large chunks

1 large onion, peeled and roughly diced

250g dried red lentils

1.5L chicken or vegetable stock (hot)

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

1 large clove garlic, finely chopped

1 olive oil

Salt and pepper to season

Bread, chopped basil and natural yoghurt to serve

What to do

Place a large pot on the stove over medium heat. Add the oil, onion and garlic and gently cook until the onion is translucent. Add the lentils, mix well with the onion and garlic and cook for a few minutes. Then add the sweet potato, cauliflower and marjoram, Mix well to combine. Pour over the hot stock. Stir gently and increase the heat until the soup comes to a rapid simmer. Reduce the heat to low so that the soup is gently simmering, pop the lid on the pot and let it cook for at least 30 minutes. It is ready once the sweet potato and cauliflower is falling apart and very soft. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Remove from the heat. I preferred this as a smooth soup so I blended it with my stick blender until all the lumps were vitamised. But you can leave it as is with chunks if you prefer. If the soup is too thick for you, you can add more stock, water or milk to thin it out.

Serve warm with a dollop of natural yoghurt and some fresh bread. Sprinkle over some chopped fresh basil leaves or some grated cheese if you like.