Autumn is in the air! The nights are drawing in and the orange-brown leaves are satisfyingly crunchy underfoot. How better to greet the new season but with some wholesome satisfying soup?

So rooting around in the vegetable drawer, this simple but delicious recipe was born. Using autumnal vegetables and store cupboard basics, you can rustle up this soup in about 45 mins (including cooking time) and in one-pot too! It is also cheap to make, tasty, healthy, plant-based, gluten-free and freezes well, making it ideal for batch cooking. What more could you want?

This recipe works well with seasonal butternut squash, sweet potato and pumpkin. This soup is a welcome delight after a night of trick and treating and or after being dazzled on bonfire night, when all you want is a quick, easy, tasty meal to warm you up from the cold.

I love to serve this with some crusty bread and butter or toasted chapattis with yoghurt cucumber dip.

Serves: 4-6 (depending on appetites!)

Preparation time: under 15 mins 

Cooking time: 27 mins

Ingredients:

• A little coconut oil
• 1 medium-large red onion, finely diced
• 2 plump garlic cloves, chopped finely
• 1/3 (about 400-450g) squash or 3 medium sweet potatoes or 400-500g pumpkin. Peeled and cut into large chunks
• 5 medium carrots peeled and sliced into fat slices
• 3 celery sticks, sliced
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• ¾ tsp. Vitalising superpowder or ½ tsp. turmeric
• 1 X 400g can of chopped tomatoes or 15 chopped fresh tomatoes
• 200g red lentils
• 8L vegetable stock
• 2 tbsp. protein powder (soya bean and pea work well). This is optional, but I love to boost the protein content of this soup.

To garnish: fresh coriander, finely chopped.

Method:

• In a large deep non-stick pot, sauté the chopped red onion and garlic on a medium heat for about 3 minutes in a little coconut oil or water.
• Add the chunks of squash or sweet potato or pumpkin and continue to sauté for about 3 further minutes.
• Add the spices and stir to coat the vegetables evenly and heat for a further 1-minute.
• Add the chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned), red lentils and stock and bring to the boil. Then allow to simmer for 20 minutes, until the squash/ sweet potato/ pumpkin chunks and lentils are tender.
• Stir in the protein powder. Ladle into bowls and garnish with a sprinkle of chopped fresh coriander. Enjoy!

Variations:

• To make a spicier curried lentil soup, add 1 tsp. dried coriander and ¼ tsp dried chilli powder.
• If you have run out of lentils, quinoa or brown rice also work well.