Such a quick and easy make, with pretty impressive results! I’m not sure I should really call this a recipe. It’s really a tale of a solitary supermarket soup pack and some assembled bits and pieces I had in my kitchen.
I do love a good shortcut, so occasionally turn to a soup pack when I need something nourishing in a hurry and really can’t be bothered with too much chopping and peeling. I feel a bit guilty when I do, but know that’s ridiculous. It’s far healthier to reach for a soup pack than a bag of chips! I found myself in my local supermarket one night last week, it was late and I was cold, when I spotted one wee bag of butternut squash and sweet potato soup mix on the shelf. This one looked like a decent balance of fresh ingredients and even had red onions and chilli mixed in. I couldn’t resist.
Now, the soup mix would have been absolutely fine on its own – all you need to do is add stock. But you know me by now, I couldn’t settle for something so straightforward. I’ve outlined the steps below, rather than recording it as an official recipe. I:
- Added one tablespoon of rapeseed oil and one teaspoon of chilli infused rapeseed oil to a wok, heated it and added all the veg from a 600g soup pack. I used normal rapeseed oil as well as chilli infused rapeseed oil to avoid the chilli flavour dominating everything else.
- Stirred over a medium heat for approximately 5 minutes then added 500ml stock. I used one Kallø organic vegetable cube.
- Simmered until the veg was almost cooked then added two large handfuls of red lentils. I rinsed the lentils first.
- Simmered again until the lentils and the veg were cooked.
- Reserved some of the mix and blitzed the rest in the blender until smooth. I returned it all to the wok and topped up with some more water to get the consistency I liked. I only added about half a cup.
- Added 5 tablespoons of low fat coconut milk. I had some left over from another recipe and kept it in the freezer knowing it would come in handy some day.
- Added a heaped tablespoon of coriander – again, this was some leftovers from my freezer.
- Heated gently, stirring all the time.
- Put it in my bowl and topped with some more coconut milk, coriander and Urban Fruit sriracha chilli coconut flakes. The coconut flakes added some crispy texture and tasted fab! Again, I had them in already.
- Added an extra drizzle of chilli infused rapeseed oil. There isn’t much in life that can’t be improved with an extra dose of chilli.
I love experimenting and I love using up leftovers. My soup pack approach allowed me to do both. You can follow my guide above, but really… just experiment to your heart’s content. Let me know what great combinations you come up with.
Enjoy!
Val x
One Soup at a Time 