Vegetable and lentil soup

At a glance

Preparation time: 60 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic or 2 garlic cloves
• 1 capsicum*
• 1 carrot*
• 1 stick celery*, including leaves
• 1 cup canned brown lentils* (no added salt if available)
• 1 canned tomatoes (no added salt if available)
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste (no added salt if available)
• 500ml chicken stock* (salt reduced if available)
• 500ml cup water
• ½ cup brown rice
• 2 stalks of parsley, chopped or 1 teaspoon dried parsley or 1 teaspoon of parsley paste (available from the chilled part of the fruit and vegetable section of the supermarket) (optional)
• 4 slices bread (wholegrain or wholemeal if available)

Steps

1. Dice the onion by removing the outer skins, cutting the onion into slices, then cutting slices into smaller pieces. Place in a small bowl for later.
2. If using fresh garlic, remove the outer skin and chop cloves into small pieces. Place in bowl with onion.
3. Chop the vegetables up into bite sized pieces. Set aside in a bowl. If using parsley, chop the stalks and leaves.
4. Heat the olive oil in large saucepan. Add the onion, capsicum, carrot, celery and cook for 5 minutes or until onion is soft.
5. Add the lentils, garlic and parsley and cook for a few minutes stirring constantly to ensure the lentils are coated.
6. Add the stock, tomatoes, tomato paste and water and bring to the boil.
7. Add the rice, cover with a lid and cook on low for 30 minutes or until the rice is tender.
8. Turn off the heat and serve with wholemeal or wholegrain bread.

*Tips

• You could add other legumes like canned chickpeas or cannellini beans.
• You could swap the fresh vegetables for 2 cups of frozen vegetables.
• To make this recipe vegetarian, you can replace the chicken stock with vegetarian stock.