Recipe for a warming, nourishing and colourful plant based lentil, carrot and roasted tomato soup, flavoured with herbs and spices. It takes a while to cook, but this allows the flavours to develop and become even more delicious.
The other day, I had the pleasure of sharing a bowl of soup with The Hedge Comber. As it was rather cold outside I fancied making something both warming and colourful.
Roasted Tomato Soup with Lentils and Carrots
I always have split red lentils in the house, but I also happened to have carrots and tomatoes too. All were of a suitable hue I reckoned. As for flavourings I decided ginger and home-grown chilli for warmth and rosemary and thyme from the garden for aroma would hit the spot.
I also decided to roast the tomatoes for additional flavour and to give a slight smoky edge to the soup. To go with this, I made a loaf of bread using oak smoked flour, which complemented the soup well, we thought.
A small grating of chocolate went into and onto the soup, but to be honest it was rather lost in the general melange and Janie was, shall we say, underwhelmed by its inclusion. So I’ve left the chocolate addition as entirely optional.
The soup isn’t the simplest or quickest one to make, but it’s worth going that extra mile. It’s best to soak the lentils first if you can. This means that not only do they cook faster, but they’re more digestible too. And of course, you can’t have roasted tomato soup without roasting the tomatoes first.
Other Tin and Thyme Blended Soup Recipes You Might Like
- Apple parsnip soup
- Cucumber & celery summer soup
- Nettle soup
- Pea, leek & potato soup
- Spiced parsnip spinach soup
- Sweet potato & carrot soup
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this roasted tomato soup with lentils and carrots, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like even more lentil recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.
Choclette x
Roasted Tomato Soup. PIN IT.
Roasted Tomato Soup with Lentils – The Recipe
Spiced Lentil, Carrot and Roasted Tomato Soup
Ingredients
- 250 g split red lentils
- 2 large carrots scrubbed
- 1 thumb size knob root ginger peeled
- 1 red chilli (I used half a rocoto)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 litre water
- 2 large tomatoes
- 1 red onion peeled
- 4 cloves garlic peeled
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 dash tamari (affiliate link) (or other soy sauce)
- ½ tsp sea salt (or to taste)
- 1 pinch freshly ground black pepper
- ½ lemon juiced
- 100% chocolate grated (optional)
Instructions
- Soak the lentils in either cold water overnight or in hot water for an hour (this greatly reduces cooking time and makes the lentils more digestible). Rinse well.
- Dice the carrot, ginger and chilli and add to the lentils together with the water and bay leaves. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the carrots and lentils are tender.
- Meanwhile, roughly chop the onion and quarter the tomatoes. Place in a roasting dish with the garlic, olive oil, rosemary and thyme and roast at 200C for about 30 minutes – the onions should be showing a little charring around the edges.
- Rub the contents through a sieve to remove the skins and any twiggy bits, then add to the cooked lentils.
- Add the tamari, salt and pepper to taste, then blitz with a hand held blender until smooth.
- Stir in the lemon juice and add a grating of chocolate if liked. Pour into bowls topping off with another light grating of chocolate if liked.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
I’m entering this roasted tomato soup into Vanesther’s The Spice Trail over at Bangers & Mash. The chilli is quite pronounced and the ginger combines with it very nicely to give a truly warming soup. The theme is Temple Food and not only is this soup good and healthy it’s the sort of thing that you might find in all sorts of Eastern temples. Minus the roasted tomatoes perhaps.
I am also sending this off to Cooking with Herbs over at Lavender and Lovage. I used rosemary and thyme from the garden to flavour the roasting tomatoes and bay leaves in the lentils. This month’s theme is The Great British Store Cupboard and as I’ve already stated, my store cupboard is permanently stocked with lentils.
Possibly for the first time ever, I find I am able to enter No Croutons Required, the longstanding salad and soup event hosted alternately by Lisa’s Kitchen and Tinned Tomatoes.
Lentil and tomato soup is a bit of a classic, but with the edition of carrots, I reckon it becomes suitable for Extra Veg over at Utterly Scrummy Food for Families.
Mandy says
This sounds like a delicious soup recipe, I’m intrigued to try the chocolate!
Choclette says
Thanks Mandy. Usually my soups consist of whatever I have to hand, but it’s quite nice to make something specific for a change.
Angela says
This looks yummy. I like spice in my food.
Choclette says
Thanks Angela. Your comment made me smile. Judging by the name of your blog, I’d hope you did like spice 😉
Karen S Booth says
That is MY kind of soup – lovely combo of flavours!
Lisa says
Love this idea. So much flavor going on in this nourishing soup. Thanks for sharing with NCR.
jwilliams101 says
I’m a big fan of lentils, ginger, chilli and dark chocolate but have never – until now – thought of putting them together in a soup! I’d love to try your recipe, it looks delicious.
Kate Glutenfreealchemist says
Lovely soup! Looks like we’ll be needing more warming bowls like this in the coming days. We use lots of roasted tomatoes (we still have a frozen stash from the summer), but haven’t yet put them in soup. I can imagine they add a wonderful depth and richness…
bangers-and-mash.com says
This is a beautiful and wonderfully warming soup – love ginger with carrot and adore chilli in just about anything. Intrigued by the idea of chocolate in there too… A perfect entry for the Temple Food challenge on #TheSpiceTrail. Thanks for linking up.
yummychunklet says
Great soup idea in this cold weather!
Nell@PigeonPairandMe.com says
This looks amazing! I never thought of using chocolate in a soup – what a gorgeous idea.
Janice Pattie says
Get you and your chocolate soup! Maybe a little Mayan Gold would have added to the spiciness, but it looks perfectly good without the addition of chocolate, lovely idea.
Angie Schneider says
I am a soup person. This is simple, yet comforting and tasty.
Deena Kakaya says
Lentils and tomatoes I’ve done, but not with carrots- sounds like a tasty meal all in one bowl x
Jane Sarchet says
Hahaha, I’m sorry for my underwhelmningness Chocolette! That’s clearly why you;re the chocolate blogger, and I’m not 😀
The soup however, and that oak smoked bread… Mmm Mmmmmmmmmm!
Thank you so much for such a lovely lunch, and I can’t wait to do it all again 🙂
Janie x
Rachel (Rachel's Kitchen NZ) says
Mmm – I love lentil soups – and the sprinkling of 100% chocolate – DELICIOUS!
GG says
Your soup sounds delicious, how fab to have lunch with Janie from Hedgecombers. GG
Galina Varese says
I love your soup, it sounds perfect. I also always have red lentils at home, and tend to add them to most soups.
Heidi Roberts says
I was relieved to see you had a sprinkling of chocolate – I would have worried if you had not used any!
Bex Walton says
I have been looking for some new soup recipes for a while. I’m so bored of constantly making leek and potato (not that there’s anything wrong with that). My other half loves lentils as well so hopefully it will keep him happy. Thanks for the recipe! Bex
Stephanie Merry says
This looks and sounds delicious and so easy to make x
David Ferguson says
I must admit at first.. I don’t often cook. BUT, when I do; it’s the wee things like this that I like to find and try and make! SO, I’m going to give this a bash and I’ll let you know how it went! Thanks for this post! x