Spicy red lentil soup- Stretch A Chicken (7)

Jul 21, 2022 | 1 comment

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Spicy red lentil soup- Stretch A Chicken (7)

This spicy carrot and lentil soup uses chicken stock made when processing a roast chicken carcass. The stock brings a great deal of flavour to the soup. If you don’t have any home made stock, use a good quality stock cube, or a vegetable one if you’d like to keep your soup vegetarian or vegan.

How to make spicy red lentil soup

This recipe uses half the chicken stock made from a chicken carcass 

Sauté chopped onion, carrot and celery until the onion is transparent. You could even leave this step out if you like and just tip all the ingredients into a saucepan and go straight to simmering it.

Then simply add everything else and simmer for 20 minutes. The other ingredients are red lentils, turmeric, garlic and ginger paste, a chopped chilli and chicken stock and water. If you have no home made chicken stock, a chicken or vegetable stock cube is fine.

Whizz if you want to, I usually do.

It’s far too hot for soup at the moment, so I’ve put a picture of another kind here which looks more or less the same. When it is more soup weather, I’ll take another picture

Spicy Red Lentil Soup in a white bowl

Can you freeze lentil soup?

All soups freeze extremely well, including this one. I usually use single portion containers and freeze soup of several different flavours – not forgetting the label! I generally have soup every day at lunch time when the weather is cool.  It’s very simple to defrost and heat up in the microwave. Delicious with home made soda bread, or perhaps a vegetable muffin.

Tomato & Chive Soda Bread

 

Vegetable Muffins

 

What changes can I make to this high protein lentil soup

  • change the spices, use a spoon of any curry paste for instance
  • leave out the spices all together
  • use green or brown lentils instead of red lentils. Or use a tin of chick peas
  • add a splash of cream to make your soup creamy
  • add more, or less, chilli, according to your taste
  • use stock made from boiling a gammon joint for a completely different flavour
  • replace 400ml of stock or water with a tin of coconut milk for a rich and creamy soup
  • add shreds of chicken, ham, pork or prawns

Seven frugal family meals using just one chicken

  1. Roast chicken, 400g chicken, gravy, with stuffing, 4 portions
  2. Risotto, 140g chicken, onion, half the the stock, some vegetables, butter and parmesan, 4 portions
  3. Pizza, 117g chicken, tomato sauce, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
  4. Pasta, white sauce, 120g chicken, peas or green beans, onion, pepper, sweetcorn, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
  5. Tart, 100g chicken, peas, carrots, onions, couple of eggs, no cheese, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
  6. Pie, 100g chicken, some of the gravy, onion, maybe some sweetcorn or mushrooms, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
  7. Soup with the remaining half of the stock, 4 portions – this recipe

An amazing 28 portions!

Which means that 1 medium chicken can provide seven frugal family meals for the whole week!

Other Soup Recipes

Cream of Cabbage Soup

 

Vegan Sweet Potato & Lentil Soup

Curried Pumpkin and Coconut Soup

spicy red lentil soup - a Pinterest image
Spicy Red Lentil Soup in a white bowl

Stretch a Chicken (7) Spicy Lentil Soup

5 from 1 vote
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Course:
Dinner
,
Household
,
Lunch
,
Main Course
Servings: 4
Cost per portion 26p
Calories: 374kcal
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Ingredients

Spicy Lentil Soup

  • 1 onion 49p/kg, 150g 7p
  • 350 g red lentils 99p/500g, 70p
  • ½ litre chicken stock use home made, or a chicken stock cube 4p
  • ½ litre water
  • 1 carrots 1.5kg/49p, 150g, 5p
  • 1 stick celery 43p/head, avg 12 sticks, 4p
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp turmeric 49p/40g, 5g. 6p
  • 1 fat clove garlic 4/79p, 2p
  • 10 g finely grated ginger 69p/125g, 6p
  • 1 red chilli finely chopped 51p/65g, 5p

Instructions

Spicy Red Lentil Soup

  • Sauté chopped onion, carrot and celery until the onion is transparent. You could even leave this step out if you like and just tip all the ingredients into a saucepan and go straight to simmering it. 
    1 onion, 1 carrots, 1 stick celery
  • Add the red lentils, salt, turmeric, garlic and ginger and chopped chilli
    350 g red lentils, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp turmeric, 1 fat clove garlic, 1 red chilli
  • Add half a litre of chicken stock and half a litre of water. Or use all water and a stock cube
    ½ litre chicken stock, ½ litre water
  • Simmer gently for 20 minutes
    Click to start a 20 minute timer
  • Whizz if you want to, I usually do.

Notes

What changes can I make to this high protein lentil soup

  • change the spices, use a spoon of any curry paste for instance
  • leave out the spices all together
  • use green or brown lentils instead of red lentils. Or use a tin of chick peas
  • add a splash of cream to make your soup creamy
  • add more, or less, chilli, according to your taste
  • use stock made from boiling a gammon joint for a completely different flavour
  • add shreds of chicken, ham, pork or prawns

The other recipes in the how to stretch a chicken series

  1. Roast chicken, 400g chicken, gravy, with stuffing, 4 portions
  2. Risotto, 140g chicken, onion, half the the stock, some vegetables, butter and parmesan, 4 portions
  3. Pizza, 117g chicken, tomato sauce, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
  4. Pasta, white sauce, 120g chicken, peas or green beans, onion, pepper, sweetcorn, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
  5. Tart, 100g chicken, peas, carrots, onions, couple of eggs, no cheese, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
  6. Pie, 100g chicken, some of the gravy, onion, maybe some sweetcorn or mushrooms, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
  7. Soup with the remaining half of the stock, 4 portions - this recipe
this comes out at a total of 28 portions, which I think is pretty good!
This means that 1 medium chicken can be used to make 7 different budget stretching chicken recipes and feed your family for a week – bargaintastic!

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts
Stretch a Chicken (7) Spicy Lentil Soup
Amount per Serving
Calories
374
% Daily Value*
Fat
 
3
g
5
%
Saturated Fat
 
1
g
6
%
Polyunsaturated Fat
 
1
g
Monounsaturated Fat
 
1
g
Cholesterol
 
4
mg
1
%
Sodium
 
795
mg
35
%
Potassium
 
1073
mg
31
%
Carbohydrates
 
61
g
20
%
Fiber
 
28
g
117
%
Sugar
 
6
g
7
%
Protein
 
26
g
52
%
Vitamin A
 
2591
IU
52
%
Vitamin C
 
7
mg
8
%
Calcium
 
70
mg
7
%
Iron
 
7
mg
39
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Tried this recipe?Mention @ThriftyLesley or tag #ThriftyLesley !

1 Comments

1 Comment

  1. Thrifty Lesley

    5 stars
    This is my go to soup in the cooler weather. It’s filling, sustaining and the chicken stock version is so so tasty. The stock makes such a difference!

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