Soup!

[starrychime]

Can anyone help with a very simple and idiot-proof soup recipe - I have the following:
Packet of red split lentils
Packed of diced carrot and swede
A leek
Veg stock pots
Salt
Not got any other spices or pepper.
Is this enough stuff for a nice lentil soup and how would you do it?

I just tend to make soups in a throw it all in a pot style.

I would cook the carrot, leeks and swede in a little oil for 5 mins or so to soften them, then add vegetable stock and cook for about 10 mins, then add the lentils and cook for another 10 mins (checking cooking instructions on pack).

Should be lovely.

I wouldn't add salt personally, but you could.

Thanks Tea! So I need to cook the lentils for about 25 mins according to pack. Do I just cover everything with water and add the stock pot (they're those little knor pots) which will dissolve into the water and then simmer the whole lot. What if it's too watery? I'm a total cooking numpty and will have to Google how to prepare a leek in a minute - don't know if you use the green bits or just the white end bit.

As Tea suggested, you want to saute the carrots, leeks and swede first, to make them delicious. Also, the fat from sauteing helps the flavors of the soup.

Make sure you wash the leek very well, they are grown in sand, so you want that out. then just chop it up as fine or coarse as you like! Most don't use too much of the green part, it can be stringy.

(If you are feeling very domestical, you can boil them with s few carrots separately and use that water -without carrots and leek greens- for the soup)

After the first 5 or ten minutes, then add some water (at least as much as the lentils need, more if you like, but I wouldn't add more than 2 times what is recommended for the lentils), and the knorr pots. Then, either when boiling or earlier if recommened by lentil packet, add lentils and cook!

the soup stock part is just the greens, not the white bits, that goes in the soup!