Lentil and Butternut Squash Soup

You may have guessed from my blog posts so far that there are a few ingredients that I always seem to have in my cupboards. This is for two reasons; they are delicious, and I have found the best way to keep food costs down is to be predictable with the ingredients you have available. My monthly shop doesn't vary that much in terms of what goes in my trolley and how much it costs, but what I make with these ingredients does.

This recipe is inspired by one of the recipes from my cooking lesson at Greenz, the vegan/vegetarian restaurant in Tulse Hill, but with my own stamp on it based on the food I tend to buy. These are the ingredients I am focusing on today...

And this is why they always find their way into my shopping trolley:

Lentils - cheap, healthy and delicious. Great source of protein.
Butternut squash - versatile, healthy and tasty. Not massively cheap, but you can get a few meals from one squash. Bulks out this soup nicely.
Ginger - this is again not something that one would consider a particularly cheap ingredient, and I'm sure goes to waste in many fridges. But just a little adds great flavour to so many dishes, and a great tip is that you can freeze it and grate it while still frozen as and when you need it.

If you like one or all of these ingredients then you should try this soup - it is Souper Douper healthy, easy to make and delicious. Adding the ginger at the last minute was one of the lessons I took away from Greenz - it gives the soup a really fresh zingy flavour. Pretty much all you need to make this is a large pan and a hand blender (see butternut squash "pesto" recipe for my thoughts or hand blenders).

Half butternut squash - seeds removed. Peel if you like, but the skin wont hurt and it will be whizzed up anyway. Chop into roughly 2 cm cubed pieces.
200g red lentils - thoroughly washed
Thumb sized piece of ginger - grated
2 tsps ground cumin
1 litre boiling water/veg stock
3 tomatoes, chopped into chunks
Glug of olive oil

Heat a large saucepan. Add a glug of oil to the pan. Chuck in the butternut squash and the ground cumin - give it a good stir and fry gently for a couple of minutes.

Make sure you have washed the lentils thoroughly in a sieve under cool running water, until the water runs clear. This will stop the scum that  can appear when cooking lentils. Add the lentils and the boiling water or vegetable stock to the squash.

Cook until the lentils and squash are soft, probably around 15-20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and then take off the heat.

Stir in the ginger and tomatoes. Using a hand blender whizz it up in the pan until it's smooth. Give it a stir to check it is as smooth as you would like it. Reheat gently until hot through. Serve with a swirl of creme fraiche/yoghurt if you have it, and some crusty bread.