I love Western-style soup, because I love eating it with bread. I love bread because of the salted butter on it. I love butter because I grew up with plant-based margarine (called Planta) which tasted really awful. I think my parents bought it because a) at the time, in the early 1970s Malaysia, butter was not readily available and b) margarine conveniently came in a tub ready to spread on your bread, toast and even cream crackers.
There is no shortage of good bread shops in London. This morning I passed by Little Bread Pedlar where I bought a loaf of wholegrain sourdough and some ciabatta.
The shop assistant, upon hearing my complaint that today’s focaccia did not look as bouncy as usual, gamely gave me a chunk of it for free.
What to eat with the bread? Soup, of course. Soup is by default very easy to make as long as you have some vegetables to hand. In the fridge today I had red peppers and some leftover cherry tomato kimchi, so I combined the two to update my previous red pepper and tomato soup.
My dad would have loved this soup. He grew up with Campbell’s tinned condensed soups and he thought very highly of their main flavours: cream of tomato, cream of mushroom and cream of chicken. This soup resembles cream of tomato blended with pickled chillies. I don’t need to say anymore. Let’s start cooking!
For the Soup:
40 g red lentils (use white long-grain rice if you do not have lentils)
70 g red or white onion, peeled and cut into quarters
20 g garlic cloves, peeled
300 g red peppers, de-seeded and cut in quarters
400 g tomatoes from the cherry tomato kimchi
50 g cherry tomato kimchi juice
350 g water
1 teaspoon red miso
Few twists of black pepper
I used my Thermomix but it is easy to make the soup using a pot and hand blender.
How to Make:
Place the lentils in the TM mixing bowl and grind 20 secs/ speed 10. This will make a very fine powder so to prevent it from escaping through the lid, place an 8 inch/ 20 cm piece of baking parchment in between the rim of the bowl and the lid. In practice I always grind more lentils than I need and store the rest in a bottle for another day.
Transfer the ground lentils to a bowl and set aside.
Place the onion, garlic, red pepper into the TM bowl and chop 3 seconds/ speed 5.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula and then sauté for 5 minutes/ 100 C/ speed 1.
Add the kimchi tomatoes and juice, water, miso, reserved ground lentils and some black pepper. Cook for 20 minutes/ 100 C/ speed 1.
Puree the soup for 1 minute/ speed 6 – 10, increasing the speed gradually over the first 20 seconds.
Serve the soup hot with a drizzle of herb oil or a sprinkling of freshly chopped herbs like parsley, chives or dill. Bread and butter to accompany it on the side, or bread and butterbean (or any other) hummus would be good too.