Soups are awesome. They’re easy to make, adaptable, inexpensive and generally good for you.

Coincidentally, these are exactly the qualities that make for a Dad Recipe. Several soups are so wholesome that they’re like a meal themselves and this is one of them.

Dad Recipe Lentil Soup

Dad Recipe

Ingredients

1 brown onion (finely chopped)
3 medium carrots (grated)
1 stick of celery (sliced)
1 large leek (sliced)
8 small potatoes (cubed)
75g red lentils
stock pots (we used 2 knorrs)
2 litres of boiling water
teaspoon of salt and pepper

Method

Step One

Pour the beer. We’ve established that one of the hallmarks of a Dad Recipe is that the chef has a beer while it’s being made. Without step one, there can be no step two. Don’t forget to wash your hands.

Step Two

Prepare the ingredients. See the list above for how each ingredient needs to be prepared. Watch your fingers.

Dad Recipe drls-02

Dad Recipe Dad Recipe

Leeks are bloody annoying to clean. They’ve always got loads of mud in them so pay particular attention to giving them a right good wash in a colander.

Dad Recipe Dad Recipe

Step Three

Boil the water. I’m not going to explain how. If you’re having difficulty with this bit, google it.

Dad Recipe Dad Recipe

Step Four

Chuck in the stock pots and stir. They’ll dissolve and, voila, you’ve got the base for your soup.

Now, you’ll see some recipes that suggest you fry the onions and soften some of the ingredients first. Nonsense. This adds extra fat / oil, and it isn’t needed. Trust me – try it this way and, if you don’t like the outcome, feel free to follow another recipe.

Dad Recipe Dad Recipe

Step Five

Chuck everything in. Give it a right good stir. Leave it on a low / medium heat and stick the lid on. Leave it for 20 minutes.

Dad Recipe Dad Recipe

Step Six

Keep an eye on the soup during the 20 minutes. Give it the odd stir and look on in amazement as the lentils triple in size and thicken the soup out. The soup shouldn’t boil ferociously as that can ruin the taste. Let it bubble gently.

Step Seven

This bit is optional but, if you do have a blender, you should do this because it does make the soup thicker and smoother.

Scoop out the bigger chunks of the soup into the liquidiser. Maybe not the potatoes, but certainly the leek, celery and lots of the carrot. I usually end up with about a third of the soup in the liquidiser. Then blend it til it’s smooth.

Dad Recipe Dad Recipe

Step Eight

Pour the blended mix back into the soup pot and give it a good stir.

Dad Recipe Dad Recipe

Step Nine

Serve with tiger bread and eat that bad boy up.

And there you have it. Healthy, filling, easy to make and as tasty as it gets!