This is a hearty soup with a mix of vegetables, tomatoes and nutritious lentils. Serve with a quick bread made from an easy 3 ingredient dough

 

Lentil,Vegetable and Tomato Soup

Ingredients

• 2 carrots diced
• 2 medium zucchini diced
• 1 stick of celery diced
• 1 large onion finely chopped
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 350 g cooked brown lentils or 2 x 400 g tins of lentils drained well
• 1tbsp olive oil
• 3 cups of stock
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley

Method

1. Heat olive oil over a medium heat and add onions, carrots, celery and zucchini
2. Cook  on a medium heat for 12 mins stirring from time to time
3. Add the tomatoes, stock and parsley stirring everything well.
4. After bringing the soup to the boil cover and simmer on low for 20 minutes
5. Add the lentils to the soup and cook for a further 5 minutes
6. Serve with some good grated parmesan cheese and some crusty Quick bread

Quick Bread

 

Ingredients

• 2 cups of Self Raising flour
• 1 1/4 cups of Greek yoghurt
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 3 tblsp fresh rosemary chopped finely
• 2 tblsp nigella seeds
• sea salt flake

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C
2. Sift the Self-Raising flour and salt
3. Stir in the yoghurt and mix together till you form a dough
4. Divide the dough into handfuls
5. Set aside covered with a cloth to rest for 5 minutes
6. Flour a board well and roll out the dough to form a rectangle
7. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle over some of the Parmesan cheese and a sprinkling of the fine chopped fresh rosemary.
8. Gently roll up the longer side to make a long baguette shape
9. Turn seam side down and curl into a snail shape pinching the end to secure
10. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sea salt flakes and nigella seeds
11. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper
12. Repeat with the rest of the dough balls
13. Bake in a hot oven for 12-15 minutes or until the bread is well browned, cover with foil for an extra 5 mins.  Final cooking time depends on the size of the rolls

Variations

The filling for the bread can be anything that you may like to use. You may choose to use finely chopped salami with a little tomato sauce and cheese, or perhaps garlic, chives and cheese.

You could also mix in some caster sugar in place of the salt and cinnamon and spices in the flour and throw in some sultanas to make sweet bread rolls.

Another idea is to use sugar instead of salt and spread some Nutella before rolling up and then brushing with milk a sprinkle of cinnamon and some sugar.