Comfort food: Pumpkin and lentil soup

(serves 4)

With the start of winter comes the start of warm soups to cut through the winter chill and warm us up from the inside! Soups are also great freezer meals, where you can make a big batch, store a few batches in the freezer ready for those days when you just don't have enough time, can't be bothered to leave the house and just want to huddle up inside with a bowl of soup to warm the hands!
NB. This is even better when the pumpkin is roasted! Peel the skin off first then roast with a bit of salt and pepper - it takes an extra 45min or so but it is much sweeter and well worth it!

Prep time: 15 min
Cooking time: 45 min

Ingredients:
1 brown onion
1 leek
1x 1.5kg butternut pumpkin 
1 potato
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp nutmeg
1 L vegetable stock
1/2 cup cream (optional)

1/2 cup red lentils
30g parmesan, optional
4 fresh bread rolls or 1/2 fresh loaf of sourdough

Method:

1. Finely cut the brown onion, leek and garlic.

2. Peel and roughly cut the pumpkin and potato.

3. Heat a large pot with 1T oil on medium heat, then add in the garlic, onion and leek and cook for 3-5 minutes until soft.

4. Put in the butternut pumpkin, potato, stock and water. Bring to the boil.

5. Add in the cumin, coriander and nutmeg and continue to simmer for 20-30 minutes until pumpkin is soft. Cool for 10-15min.

6. Blend with a stick blender until smooth, or in the food processor in batches.

7. Reheat the soup in the pot and stir in the cream.

8. Cook the red lentils in one cup of boiling water for 5 minutes until the water is absorbed and lentils are soft. Add to the soup and cook for a further 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and serve with grated parmesan and fresh bread!