During the last weekend I celebrated my birthday. As usual on such occasion I went away with my family. We have spent a wonderful weekend on a North Sea coast and got back home on early afternoon Monday. The traffic on the way back was bad and we were all a bit tired and did not fancy doing grocery shopping at all. Therefore I had to trawl through kitchen cupboards and fridge to see what ingredients I have available to put together a dish for our tea. There are several products that I try to always have in my kitchen: lentils, tinned chickpeas, onions and carrots. I also like to have chorizo in the fridge. You never know when you may need it and it is good to be prepared 😉 This was one of such occasions and the result was a thick, flavoursome and warming soup. It is very simple to prepare and I can tell you that one bowl of this beauty and you will be satisfied. It has a perfect balance between sweetness of carrots and heat from chorizo and chilli. If you are using a very spicy chorizo you can omit the chilli or… add as much as you wish if you want the soup to be really spicy.

Ingredients:

• 1 tblsp rapeseed oil
• 100g chorizo, chopped into 1cm cubes
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped into 1cm cubes
• 3 baby corns chopped into 1cm rings (optional)
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• Pinch of dried chilli flakes
• 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed.
• 75g red lentils
• 800g chicken stock
• 1 tblsp chopped parsley to garnish

Method:

1. Put the oil and chorizo into a large saucepan over low heat to release the flavour
2. After about 5 minutes add the onion, increase the heat to medium and cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Add the carrots (and baby corn if using) and cook for further 5 minutes. Stir from time to time to ensure they do not burn on the bottom of the pan.
4. Add the paprika and chilli flakes and cook for 1 minute.
5. Add the chickpeas together with the lentils and stock. Bring to boil, lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the lentils are tender.
6. Serve  in pre heated bowls, garnished with the chopped parsley.