Cinnamon Soup

In view of my recent declaration to include more cinnamon in savoury dishes, I knocked up this lentil soup yesterday. I'd tried a spicy lentil soup in Crete and the Edinburgh weather seemed suitably miserable for such wintery fare. Traditional recipes call for brown lentils, which I would have preferred as they keep their shape better, but I used red lentils as that's all that Somerfield ever has in stock. The following made up six large bowls of soup (and feed us for two lunches and one dinner, which is more than enough legumes for any person.)

4 cloves of garlic - smashed and chopped finely
4 small red onions - diced
2 large carrots - cubed
250 g red lentils
5 cups water
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 bayleaves
1 cup passata (pureed tomato)
black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinamon

Sweat the onions and garlic in some olive oil in the bottom of a pan. Add the carrots and cook for another minute or two. Pour in the lentils, water, pepper and dried herbs. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes or until the red lentils have disolved somewhat. Add the passata, salt and cinnamon and simmer for a further 20 minutes.

Remove the soup from the heat and stir in

1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar


I like this soup for three reasons. 1) I kept to my resolution of abandoning the stock cube and it was still thick and tasty. 2) Cinnamon is good. 3) It only used dried herbs. While fresh herbs would probably have been more exciting, there are some days when you really don't want to trek to the market. (And, there is sometimes the problem of what happens to your window box of herbs when you're on holiday in Crete.)