Eleven Blethers Blog

So, last week was a bit hit and miss on the healthy eating front.. One too many treats. Ben and Jerry’s and local chip shop, I’m looking at you!

Miraculously I still lost 1lb last week, however, I know if I carry on indulging, I won’t be so lucky this week.

So, it’s back on the straight and narrow as of today. I don’t know about you but healthy food has to be interesting and tasty or it becomes a bit boring and you end up being tempted to go off track.

With that in mind I invented my Fajita Soup! At the moment we are eating soup for lunch every day.
I tend to make a pan every other day and it last us for 2 lunches. So, I didn’t want the soup thing to become boring.

One of my favourite meals is fajitas, so I chucked some ingredients in to a pan and fajita soup was born!
Now, a quick google shows there are many versions of fajita soup but I haven’t referred to any of them, I kind of just made it up as I went along. The result was super tasty and filling, one of my favourite soups!

Here’s the recipe…

Ingredients

2 Onions
2 Peppers
1 Carrot
1 Can/Carton Chopped Tomatoes
2 Cloves Garlic
140g Red Split Lentils
2 tsp Tomato Purée
2 Chicken Stock Cubes
Sprinkle Mild Chilli Powder (about 1/2 tsp)
Sprinkle of Paprika (about 1/2 tsp)
Sprinkle of Cumin (about 1/2 tsp)
Pinch of Salt
Small Pinch of Pepper
Splash of oil (whatever you usually cook with)

Method;

You can either eat this chunky or blended. I usually blend it with a stick blender once cooked, thats just because some of the people in this house prefer it without lumps. It would taste just fine unblended too though!

So, dice onions, peppers and either grate or dice the carrot. Put a splash of oil and a pinch of salt in a large pan.
I always add a pinch of salt at this stage as I remember Nigella once saying it stops the onions browning too much, no idea if this is actually true but I always do it now!
Sauté the onions, peppers and carrot on a medium heat, stirring, until reasonably soft.
Sometimes, if I have some vine tomatoes that are past their best I chop and add these too for extra flavour.
Add the mild chilli powder, paprika and cumin and stir for a few mins to distribute the spices.
Now add the garlic, diced or crushed is fine.
Add the chopped tomatoes, lentils (rinsed in cold water first) and chicken stock.
I make up the chicken stock with 1l of water then add extra boiling water to the pan to top it up.
Finally, add the tomato purée and a pinch of pepper.

Now all you need to do is give it a good stir, pop the lid on and simmer for about an hour. Give it an occasional stir to make sure the lentils don’t stick to the bottom. If it reduces down too much just add a splash of boiling water.

Once it’s cooked you can either blend it or eat it chunky. A pan full will make approximately 4 generous bowls and 2 small bowls.

If you have some left over chicken you can always adapt the soup by adding that for protein, instead of the lentils! Enjoy! 🙂