Roasted Red Pepper and Lentil Soup

In this roasted red pepper and lentil soup, peppers are roasted and blended along with spices and nutritious red lentils.

This is an easy soup that’s perfect to make ahead of time for the days you don’t feel like cooking.

I love making soups. Mainly so that I can make them ahead of time and then eat them on the days when I just don’t want to cook. Usually, it’s when I’ve gotten distracted in the garden, and by the time I come inside I’m tired and covered in dirt.

A bowl of soup sounds pretty awesome right about then.

In the autumn, peppers are still in season. You’ve either got them turning red in the garden or they’re nice and cheap at the grocery store.

Roasted Pepper and Red Lentil Soup Ingredients

The full recipe for the soup is below but I will go through the ingredients in a bit more detail here.

• Bell peppers (capsicums) – I like using the red and orange peppers for this soup. They’re lovely and sweet and add great colour. Grilling them a little first adds some sweetness.
• Onion, garlic, and celery – a brown onion is what I use but you can use shallots or red onion too. Garlic and celery add a great base flavour to the soup.
• Spices- cumin, smoked paprika, and cayenne pepper give the soup a warm spice and smokey taste
• Red split lentils – these cook fairly quickly and add thickness and a creamy texture to the soup
• Vegetable stock – use a good quality vegetable stock, homemade or store-bought.
• Salt and pepper – Salt and pepper the soup according to taste (and dependant on whether the vegetable stock has added salt).
• Fresh lemon or yoghurt – A squeeze of fresh lemon juice at the end or a dollop of tangy yoghurt gives freshness and lift to the soup.

Making The Soup – The Method

1. Grill the peppers. Cut the peppers in half and remove the seeds. Place them cut side down on an oven tray. Place the oven tray under the grill (broiler), and set it to high. Keep them under the grill until the skins of the pepper blacken. Watch it carefully.
2. Cool and peel the peppers. Now let the peppers cool down in a bowl, covered with a plate. Once cooled, peel off as much of the skin as you can, but don’t worry if you can’t remove it all. Just remove the blackened parts.
3. Sauté the onion, garlic and celery. Sauté the onion first, until starting to caramelise, then add the garlic and celery and cook until fragrant and soft.
4. Add the lentils, peppers and spices. Add in the lentils, peppers and spices and cook for two to three minutes, then de-glaze the pot with the vegetable stock.
5. Simmer and season. Bring to a simmer and simmer the soup until the lentils are soft. Add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
6. Blend and serve. Blend the soup until smooth, season with salt and serve hot with crusty bread, a dollop of yogurt and torn fresh basil leaves.

Sharing is caring!