Prep Time: 15 minutes (ish)

Cooking Time: 40 minutes (ish)

Total Time: 55 minutes (ish)

Serves 6 generously (I always make double and freeze some for later- nice!)

The Ingredients

• 2 cups of chopped onion
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more to garnish (optional)
• 2 minced garlic gloves
• 1 tin of lentils (any colour is great- I used brown lentils in mine, although I’ve always been intrigued by the blue variety!)
• about 6-7 cups of butternut pumpkin, peeled and chopped
• 4 cups of organic vegetable stock
• 6 cups of filtered water
• 3 tbsp of tahini paste
• 1 tbsp of minced fresh ginger
• 2-3 teaspoons of sweet paprika, depending on your preference (I used this Spanish paprika mix from Herbie’s in Rozelle, Sydney)
• Salt & pepper to taste

Click here for a tried-and-trusted kale chips recipe

The ‘How’

1. Cook the onions in the olive oil over a low-medium heat for a couple of minutes until they’re just see-through and looking gorgeous.
2. Stir through the garlic, making sure it coats the onions well, then add the vegetable stock. Add the pumpkin (squash) and lentils, then the filtered water.
3. Cover and bring to the boil. If there is any foam created from the lentils, skim this off with a spoon. Reduce heat and simmer for around 40 minutes (check occasionally to make sure the veggies and lentils aren’t too soggy, they should be just tender). Add in the ginger and paprika just before the time is up.
4. Taste the soup afterwards and add any extra spices, salt and/or pepper to taste. Add the tahini paste, again, vary the amount depending on how you like it.
5. Remove the soup from the heat and blend on high until smooth (if you have a blender, you might want to do this in batches, but my stick blender seemed to handle the whole lot in one go pretty well!) Return to the pot.
6. Serve immediately. Garnish with additional olive oil in the centre of the bowl or anything you fancy for a bit of a flourish!

Others Ways to Jazz it Up!

• Use coconut oil instead of olive oil (that’s what I used in the first picture above- it tastes divine!)
• Garnish with walnuts, almonds and/pine nuts
• Experiment with other left-over veggies you have and chuck them in as well- carrots and red capsicum would go well here.
• Serve with gorgeous sprouted bread or kale chips for a bit of a change.
• Experiment with using cumin and turmeric if you want a spicier soup.
• Put less filtered water in for a slightly thicker soup.

So, there we have it! Hope you enjoy it my darlings- looking forward to finishing the batch off for lunch this week!

Love and nights soup was made for,

Katie   xx