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
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.
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
- Roast chicken, 400g chicken, gravy, with stuffing, 4 portions
- Risotto, 140g chicken, onion, half the the stock, some vegetables, butter and parmesan, 4 portions
- Pizza, 117g chicken, tomato sauce, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
- Pasta, white sauce, 120g chicken, peas or green beans, onion, pepper, sweetcorn, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
- Tart, 100g chicken, peas, carrots, onions, couple of eggs, no cheese, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
- Pie, 100g chicken, some of the gravy, onion, maybe some sweetcorn or mushrooms, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
- 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
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 chilli350 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 cube½ 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.
Equipment Needed
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
- Roast chicken, 400g chicken, gravy, with stuffing, 4 portions
- Risotto, 140g chicken, onion, half the the stock, some vegetables, butter and parmesan, 4 portions
- Pizza, 117g chicken, tomato sauce, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
- Pasta, white sauce, 120g chicken, peas or green beans, onion, pepper, sweetcorn, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
- Tart, 100g chicken, peas, carrots, onions, couple of eggs, no cheese, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
- Pie, 100g chicken, some of the gravy, onion, maybe some sweetcorn or mushrooms, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
- Soup with the remaining half of the stock, 4 portions - this recipe
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!