Carrot and Cumin Soup

Well the summer has officially gone and the thick winter socks are on, and we all know what that means. Soup! I love me a bit of soup, perfect when you need warming up on a chilly autumn eve.

My mum used to always make the best carrot and lentil soup growing up, so for me it's the ultimate comfort food. I've put a little spicy twist to this family favourite though to give it a warming kick.

This like the majority of my recipes (bar my GBBO bakes) is super simple. The hardest graft is probably chopping up the veggies. It's also really flexible, the measurements are all pretty rough. I'll be honest I pretty much went with what was sitting in the fridge. If you're looking for a 5:2 version of this then just remove the honey and use less oil to cut down on the calories.

So let's get to it!

Ingredients

2 Tbsp of Olive Oil
1 Large Onion
2 Garlic Cloves (crushed)
2 Tsp Cumin Seeds
2 Tsp Ground Coriander
1 Tsp Chilli Powder
1 Tbsp Honey (optional)
500g Carrots
2 Celery Sticks
1 Litre of Veg or Chicken Stock

1) Start by roughly chopping up all the veg. Make sure the carrot is cut into fairly small chunks to make the cooking process a bit quicker.  

2) Cook the onions in the olive oil until soft. Add the cumin, coriander and chilli powder and cook for a couple more minutes.

3) Add the honey then the carrots and celery. Cook for around 5 minutes to soften the veggies.

4) Pour over your stock and leave to simmer for around 15 minutes or until the carrots and celery are fully cooked.

5 Blitz the mixture together until smooth. Serve with a big dollop of greek yoghurt and a few more cumin seeds sprinkled on top. Oh and not forgetting a big crusty wholemeal role (you gotta get that carb fix somehow!)