Happy New Year and welcome to 2016! Let’s make it a souptastic year!
After the holidays drinking and eating naughty, New Years is a proper time again to start thinking about feeding our bodies warm and healthy soups. I love healthy soups and I am hoping to make more this year so that they will keep me fueled for my biggest goal for 2016 – my very first ever triathlon in May. Just the other day, I was sifting through Jamie Oliver’s Recipe Yearbook and this Spiced Parsnip & Lentil Soup with Chilli Oil caught my attention. I love many of Jamie’s recipes because he seems to use a fair bit of Indian inspired spices and root vegetables – and who doesn’t love parsnips?
The Verdict of Spiced Parsnip & Lentil Soup with Chilli Oil
I love the garlic chilli oil with this warm spicy and filling lentil soup – it definitely adds a nice layer and it looks oh so pretty! The fresh mint with the Masala spices really play together very well. I am surprised how filling this soup is – it must be the meaty red lentils. The soup is comforting and fulfilling. But, there is always room for improvement. If I was to make this soup again in the future, I would fry a lot more garlic pieces separately and add with them with oil as the garnish. I personally like having some chunks of goodness as I think it gets a tad boring with smooth puree soups. You need to add multiple levels of goodness!
- Olive Oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 400g parsnips, scrubbed and chopped
- 2 tablespoon Garam Masala
- 1 inch piece ginger, peeled and chopped
- 250g red lentils
- 1.6 litres vegetable stock
- 1 tablespoon mint leaves, finely shredded to serve
Chill Oil:
- 3 Tablespoon oil
- 2 red chillies, finely sliced
- 1 garlic, finely sliced
- To make the chili oil, place the oil in a small pan over a very low heat. Add the chillies and garlic and warm through for 5 minutes, making sure the garlic doesn’t brown. Set aside to steep while making the soup. The oil can be strained before using or left as is, depending how you like it.
- For the soup, head the olive oil in a large pot and add the onion. Cook gently, stirring often, for 5 minutes then add the parsnips, masala and ginger and cook for a further 5 minutes.
- Add the lentils and vegetable stock, and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 30 minutes, until the lentils are nice and soft.
- Puree the soup until smooth in blender or with hand immersion wand, being careful with the hot liquid.
- Serve the soup with the chills oil and mint.
- I did not use hamhock as I wanted a veggie version
- I substituted rogan josh paste with garam masala dried spice
- I omitted yogurt as a garnish
- I substituted groundnut oil with olive oil for the chilli oil.
Healthy (+ slimming + low sodium): (4.5/5)

Presentation: (4.5/5 )

Taste: (3.75/5)
