Tomato, red lentils and smoked chili soup

Winter this year has been exceptionally warm and well... boring! It's more like a typical Belgian autumn, in fact, dark, rainy and windy. The last couple of days it has started to get colder, though. All that is still missing is some snow finally... Today after a very nice long run in the forest I really felt like a hot and spicy soup tonight. And so I decided for a slightly different tomato soup - with red lentils for extra thickness and some chilean merquén spice for a hot smoked flavour. Fast, easy to make and really delicious!

Tomato and red lentils soup

(makes 6-8 servings)

3 tbsp. olive oil

2 medium onions, chopped

8 garlic cloves, minced

3 cans of diced tomatoes, 400g each

140g tomato paste

250g red lentils, picked over and well rinsed

2-2.5L vegetable bullion, depending on the desired thickness

1-2 tsps. merquén spice (a mix of dried and smoked Chilean chili seasoned with cumin, coriander and salt)

0.5-1 tsp. ground cumin

0.5 tsp. salt

chopped fresh parlsey or coriander to garnish

In a large pot heat up the olive oil, add the onions and garlic, fry for 5 minutes at a low-medium heat. Add the canned tomatoes and tomato paste, cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the bullion and the lentils, cover and cook at low heat until the lentils are soft, 20-30 min. Add the spices, simmer for 5 more minutes  and serve with chopped fresh parsley or coriander and a thick slice of fresh bread.

Spaghetti with eggplant and tomato sauce

This recipe is a modified version of the ‘Eggplant Spaghetti Bolognese’ from the Whole Foods Market website:

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/2843

I use their recipes very often, mostly through a very nice app for iPhone and iPad. You can search for recipes by ingredient, or a combination of ingredients that you have at hand, using filters such as ‘vegan’, ‘vegetarian’, ‘sugar conscious’, ‘low fat’, ‘gluten free’, etc. Other filters include the type of course and category, e.g. ‘make ahead’, ‘no cook’, quick and easy’. The app allows you also to create a shopping list directly from the recipe, then you can just delete the ingredients you already have. All in all, I find it very, very useful and so far all the vegan recipes I have tried have worked out great. I highly recommend it!

Here is my today’s version of the recipe. The first time I made this dish I didn’t have any almond milk and I have continued to do it this way. I might try adding it once to see how the flavor changes, but it works out great without it. 

I have to admit it made a lot of food, I would say 8 portions, so you might want to modify the amounts a bit. In fact that's the only problem with the Whole Foods Market recipes, I don't find their serving sizes very accurate - the original recipe says it serves 8, while in fact I even doubled some of the ingredients and I think now it might serve 8. Or maybe we simply eat much more ;)

1.5 cup red wine

2 small onions, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

8 cloves garlic, minced

2 small eggplants, chopped (I didn’t peel them)

250g dark champignons

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 yellow bell pepper, chopped

1 tbsp. dried rosemary (as I forgot to buy fresh…)

3 cans chopped tomatoes

4 tbsp. tomato paste

2 cups vegetable broth

Cayenne pepper and freshly ground black pepper to taste

½ tsp. salt

5 tbsp. chopped fresh basil

Whole wheat spaghetti

Bring the red wine to simmer in a large pot. Add the onions, carrots, celery, 6 garlic cloves and cook over low/medium heat until most of the wine has evaporated. Add the eggplants, mushrooms, bell peppers and rosemary and cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently. Add the vegetable broth, remaining garlic (I always save some garlic to add at a later stage of cooking sauces or soups, but don’t do it if you don’t like a more distinct garlic flavor), tomato paste, canned tomatoes, cayenne, black pepper and salt, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and add half of the basil. Cook the spaghetti, drain, stir in the sauce and serve with the remaining basil.