The weather forecast at the beginning of the week left me no choice but to declare it’s going to be soup week. I am a huge fan of soups, and can eat soups every day, all day. In a week like this I can easily make 4 XL pots of soup. When the weather outside is as stormy as it is now, and the desire to curl up appears, I automatically think what can be brewed into a pot of comforting soup.

This potato and white bean soup sat in my mind for a while. I wanted some kind of a creamy and light shaded soup but with earthy, non-dairy flavors. The best thing about soups is that you can put all kinds of ingredients in one pot and mix them so that you get exactly the balance of flavors you feel like at that moment.

So I thought and imagined it in my head, and perfected it on the stove and it turned out to be one of the best soups I had in a while. Vegan potato and white bean soup, cooked with rosemary, garlic, hot chili flakes and olive oil. I Finished the soup with a little finely chopped parsley and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Amazing how so few ingredients can produce such a depth of flavors.

One extra note about cooking time. The cooking time is mainly determined by the white bean cooking time. The first rule is not to add any salt while cooking the beans – only at the end. The other element is the freshness of the dried beans (how old they are). The older the beans are – the longer it will take for them to soften. The last thing has to be the soaking time. The longer you’ll soak the beans – the faster it’ll be cooked. Therefore, always buy beans from a place you trust, don’t shorten the soaking time, and don’t add salt until the beans are soft.

Looking to be inspire with more delicious soups?

• White corn and miso soup with chili oil
• Green lentil and mushroom soup
• Red lentil and butternut squash soup with spicy coriander pesto

Print Recipe

Vegan Potato and white bean soup

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr 40 minutes mins

beans soaking time8 hours hrs

Total Time1 hour hr 55 minutes mins

Course: Soup

serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 2 cups white bean, soaked in water for at least 8 hours – that is 1 cup of dried beans before soaking
• 2 large potatoes or 4 medium potatoes, coarsely sliced into medium-sized pieces
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1-2 spring of rosemary
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced ​​(not chopped nor crushed)
• ½ teaspoon chili flakes
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 6 cups water, plus more if needed
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Instructions:

• Soak the beans for at least 8 hours. Make sure to replace the soaking water at least once during this time
• Wash the beans, drain it and place it in a large pot. Add olive oil, rosemary, sliced ​​garlic, hot chili flakes, black pepper and water. Bring to a boil and cook over medium heat, with the pot partially covered, for 45 minutes until the beans begin to soften. Make sure not to add salt at this time, as salt will delay the softening of the beans. See also notes regarding bean cooking times.
• Add coarsely sliced ​​potatoes to the pot and cook for another 40 minutes, until the beans and potatoes are very soft. If necessary – add more water while cooking.
• Remove the rosemary branch (s), which have shed their leaves. Add salt, stir and cook together for another 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and add finely chopped parsley and fresh lemon juice. Mix well, taste and adjust flavors if necessary. Serve hot of course.

Notes:

• Bean cooking time depends on a number of ingredients and can vary. The fresher the dried beans, that is – the less time spent in the store – the shorter the cooking time. Also, the longer the soaking time of the beans – the shorter the cooking time. In any case, do not add salt while cooking the beans, and this is true for almost all types of legumes, but only at the end.
• Frozen white beans – can be used, although the cooking time will be significantly shortened and with it the flavors that will develop. If you use frozen beans then you should cook it together with the potatoes from the beginning for a time of about 45 minutes. In any case, add salt only at the end of cooking.

Did you make this recipe?
Please let me know how it turned out!
comment below or share it on instagram and tag #thehappylentils

הפוסט Vegan Potato and White Bean Soup הופיע לראשונה ב- The Happy Lentils.

So after a while that life seems as if we are living one long week that started somewhere around March, the weather here is finally changing and that brings something new to life, some change. I wont lie, COVID19 made the last few months difficult for me, as for the rest of the world obviously, and the feeling is that everything is stuck in place. And here comes the rain, and there is something new to look at and suddenly it seems that time does pass, even if nothing else has really changed.

The weather is changing, new winds are really blowing, and I understand more than ever that I have to break away from everything that is happening outside, and try to imagine and build a private world for myself. And in my private world autumn is coming, and there is excitement from all kinds of citrus fruits and an abundance of green vegetables returning to the markets. And in my private world the most urgent thing to deal with is hot stews and comforting soups and challah on Shabbat and in general lots of happy pots to gather my family around.

The first soup I chose to make is this soup – a thick and satisfying green lentil soup, with the most modest ingredients but also those that prove that you don’t need too much to make your house a home. And as the soup boiled and bubbled, a gorgeous smell spread in my home that reminded me the smell in my late grandma Fanny’s kitchen, and no one was happier than me.

The making of the soup starts with the french holy trinity (mirepoix) – onions, celery and carrots. It has mushrooms and tomatoes in it, that add depth. And just like any good soup, it must be finished with lots of green herbs and this time it’s cilantro. The cooking time here is relatively short, and in the end I really recommend mashing some of the soup, whether with a hand blender or a potato masher, which gives the soup its amazing texture. Now for the recipe:)

Crazy for soups just like me? Here are some more great options:

• White Corn and Miso Soup with Chili Oil
• Coconut Vegetable and Tofu Curry Soup
• Red Lentil and Butternut Squash with Spicy Coriander Pesto

Print Recipe

Green lentil and mushroom soup

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time40 minutes mins

Total Time55 minutes mins

Course: Soup

serves: 5

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups green lentils, washed and drained. It's not a must to soak lentils, but I usually soak them for at least two hours.
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, sliced ​​into rings
• 2 celery stalks, chopped – about half a cup
• 250 gr/ ½ pound mushrooms, coarsely chopped
• 2 tomatoes, coarsely chopped – about a cup
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• ½ teaspoon cumin powder
• ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1½ liter/ 6 cups of water or vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup cilantro – leaves only, chopped

Instructions:

• In a large pot, heat olive oil. Add chopped onion and sauté while stirring until transparent, about 3 minutes.
• Add sliced ​​carrots, chopped celery, chopped mushrooms, chopped garlic and the spices – cumin, turmeric and paprika. Be careful not to add salt at this point but only at the end of cooking (adding salt to legumes delays their cooking and leaves the beans stiff). Stir and cook for another 5 minutes.
• Add to the pot the green lentils (well washed and strained of course), chopped tomatoes and water or vegetable stock. Stir and bring to a boil. Cook over medium heat without a lid for about 35 minutes, until the lentils and all the vegetables are softened.
• Carefully remove the pot from the heat. Using a hand blender, mash some of the soup to create a thick and delicious texture. Alternatively, you can use a potato masher or mash in a blender about half of the soup. Return the soup to the stoves, add a teaspoon of salt, or more to taste, stir and cook for another 5 minutes.
• Stir in fresh cilantro, chopped, and serve.

Did you make this recipe?
Please let me know how it turned out!
comment below or share it on instagram and tag #thehappylentils

הפוסט Green Lentil and Mushroom Soup הופיע לראשונה ב- The Happy Lentils.

It’s really is winter out there. It’s cold, and so windy. In other words, there is no better time for a soup then right now! And there’s no better one than this adzuki bean soup, with kale and sweet potatoes.

People walk down the street like hugging themselves, wrapped in coats, hats and scarves. When you look at the people on the street it seems that they just want to arrive to wherever it is there’re going to. Quickly, without getting too entangled along the way. Just to get to where they need to get, preferably somewhere closed, dry and warm.

I feel like here in Israel we’re not built for winter, and not just because of the infrastructure. Because most of the time it’s sunny here, winter can feel weird… We will change plans, cancel events, wait for weather to calm down.

But above all the food… oh the food. Bowls of soups and stews, so much green vegetables… for me the highlight of winter is its food. Warm, family-friendly, cozy, just the opposite of the weather. As if looking to balance what’s going on outside with what we put into our body.

Vegan Adzuki Bean, Kale and Sweet Potato Soup

This soup is just what you want in a cold winter day – it’s warm, delicious, full with things that are good for your body. I am a fan of soups, and in this weather – soup for me is a must.

At the base of the soup is the Azuki bean. With sweet and nutty flavors, this bean is both healthy and easy-to-digest bean. The adzuki bean cooking time is shorter than the regular white bean. Like most legumes, it should be soaked in water for a few hours, at least 6 hours, before cooking. Also, when I soak beans I always soak much more then I need, and then store the rest in the freezer, in suitable bags/containers each contains 1 cup of beans.

It’s important to remember not to add salt when you cook the beans, because adding salt while cooking legumes prevents them to get soft. That’s why, in this case, you should only add salt at the end of the cooking.

Love soups? Here are a few more for you :

• Vegan potato and white bean soup
• Green lentil and mushroom soup
• White corn and miso soup
• Coconut vegetable and tofu curry soup

Print Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Vegan Adzuki Bean, Kale and Sweet Potato Soup

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr

beans soaking time8 hours hrs

Total Time1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course: Soup

serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 1 cup adzuki beans, soaked in fresh water for at least 8 hours, well washed and drained. the amount is for the dry adzuki beans before soaking.
• 2 medium size sweet potatoes or one large one, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup kale, without the main stem (about 4-5 stalks)
• 1 medium onion (about 1 cup), chopped
• 2-3 sprigs of celery (leaves included), chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 6 cups water
• ½ cup parsley, chopped

Instructions:

• In a deep pot, over medium heat, heat olive oil. Add chopped onion, chopped celery, turmeric powder, ground nutmeg and black pepper and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add the azuki beans to the pot. Make sure you're adding the adzuki beans after they were soaked in water for at least 8 hours, well washed and drained. Add water, bring to a boil and cook for 20 minutes after boiling, over medium-high heat.
• Using a knife or your clean hands, remove the central stem from the kale leaves (the central stem has a woody and unpleasant texture). Cut the kale very coarsely, or tear it into large pieces with your hands.
• Add the chopped sweet potatoes and the chopped kale to the pot. Bring to a second boil and cook for another 30 minutes. If necessary – add more water to the pot. At the end of cooking, make sure that the beans and sweet potatoes have softened and only then add salt and mix. Turn off the heat and add chopped parsley. Serve hot and enjoy.

Notes:

• Note that as with most legumes, the salt is added only after the beans have been cooked and are soft. Adding salt to legumes at the beginning of cooking greatly inhibits their softening.
• The beans should be soaked in clean and fresh water for at least 8 hours. It’s highly recommended to change the water at least once during that time. After that, rinse them thoroughly and filter.

Did you make this recipe?
Please let me know how it turned out!
comment below or share it on instagram and tag #thehappylentils

הפוסט Vegan Adzuki Bean, Kale and Sweet Potato Soup הופיע לראשונה ב- The Happy Lentils.

Everyone has these dishes he or she makes almost automatically, dishes you cook / prepare without even thinking about it and that the hands kind of “know” what to do. Sometimes these dishes are the ones we make regularly, and then usually we have all the ingredients at home, or at least on the fixed shopping list. For me at this point in life, the dish I make most automatically is… israeli couscous (can you even call israeli couscous a dish? I think you can!) But it’s without a doubt because of my kids, who could eat israeli couscous for breakfast, lunch and dinner if it depended on them. By the way, along with the israeli couscous, and in the same category, is of course simple white rice.

There are dishes that your hands can make automatically because of a certain cooking style. That is, the ingredients can change but the seasoning and the way you cook them remain the same. Like the Moroccan seasoning paprika-cumin-turmeric or the French onion-celery-carrots or something similar. Sometimes the cooking style comes from home, sometimes it’s something we fell in love with on the way and adopted, it really doesn’t matter.

And than there are the dishes that we do automatically even if we haven’t done them for a long time, simply because they are part of who we are. Just like we will always remember the way to our childhood home or our best friend from school’s phone number. If I had to choose one such dish for me, it’ll probably be vegetable soup, but the classic one, like the Jewish chicken soup without the chicken. This soup, even if I wouldn’t make for two years or even ten years, I’ll know automatically- without any recipe, but with lots of love, to bring together the most amazing vegetable soup. It probably won’t be exactly the same as the one I made before (they never are…), but it sure will be from the same family, and that’s exactly the point.

Here is a dish that really didn’t automatically come to me. I don’t usually buy or cook with corn, but I saw these beautiful white corns at my local vegetables store and I just had to buy them. Cooking the corn with the miso creates an interesting combination (I think miso is general has a genius flavor) and all the other additions – roasted corn, chili oil, green onions and coriander are an integral part of the soup and you shouldn’t give up any of them.

One last thing (which is also in the recipe’s notes) – you don’t have to make chili oil. It is possible to buy or use your favorite spicy sauce (including Tabasco), but I wouldn’t give up a little spice in the soup completely since it gives a good balance to the sweetness of the corn.

Print Recipe

White Corn and Miso Soup with Chili Oil

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time45 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Course: Soup

serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 3 cups white corn (I used 4 cobs for it)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup miso paste
• 4 cups water
• 2 springs green onions, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1½ tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

for the chili oil-

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1-2 dried chili peppers

Instructions:

• In a suitable pot on a medium heat warm up a tablespoon of olive oil. Add chopped onions, salt and black pepper, stir and cook while stirring for about 3 minutes, until the onions are softened and golden.
• Add the miso paste and 4 cups of water. Stir well until the miso is melted completely in the liquid.
• Keep aside for later about 1/4 cup of corn. Add the remaining corn to the pot, stir and bring to a boil. Cook over medium heat for 40 minutes.
• During this time, roast the corn we kept aside in a small pan with ½ tablespoon of olive oil for about two minutes while stirring. Keep aside.
• Make the chili oil (see notes) – In a small pot, add olive oil and dried chili pepper. Cook on a minimal heat for 20-25 minutes. Minimal heat is required so that the dried chili pepper won't burn or be fried but only allow its flavors to season the oil. Strain if you like (I do).
• Blend the prepared soup either using an immersion blender or a regular blender. Before serving, stir in the roasted corn, green onions and cilantro and drizzle over 2-3 tablespoons of the chili oil. Enjoy 🙂

Notes:

• Chili oil – as I said, you don’t have to make chili oil. You can buy ready made chili oil or use your preferred chili sauce (including Tabasco). It’s also possible to use chili flakes instead. If you choose to prepare the chili oil then of course the dried chilies you choose to use will affect the taste of the oil. There are many types of dried chilies. There are the bigger ones, which are usually less spicy – in this case I would use two. There are the little ones that are usually very spicy, and then I would use one. Feel free to use any chili oil that is left for any other stews.

הפוסט White Corn and Miso Soup with Chili Oil הופיע לראשונה ב- The Happy Lentils.

If you have ever heard the local radio traffic reports, you probably already know how important timing is, and what a special honor gets the listeners that report all the traffic jams they notice on their rout in real time.

I can understand why, because I myself am also a timing person.

I’m timing everything, break the day into hours, half hours and minutes. I’m timing when to wake up in the morning, when to take a shower and when to tell the kids to take a shower, I’m timing when to leave the house, of course taking in account all the data that’s relevant to the purpose of leaving the house, like the specific traffic jams in the city for that hour, what’s the parking availability at the destination, and whether or not I have travel partners with me (Tamar gets organized in seconds, Ido needs a few minutes to himself before we leave, and Lior will always changes his shirt at the last minute).

I’m timing when to call a friend so both of us could talk without interruption, I’m timing when to go to bed, I’m timing the exact time I should start cooking the israeli couscous so it will be ready with all the other dishes of the meal. I’m timing and I’m timing… so many times I time, I swear I’ve stopped counting.

Don’t get me wrong, my timings aren’t always right or successful … but somehow I’m always busy with them. I think that with all the uncertainties, the desire for control that shatters at least once a day with a big noise on the floor, this coincidence called “raising children”, the traffic jams, or in short – life, timing gives me confidence, gives me the feeling (or maybe illusion) that I have control. When my timings are wrong, I know at least I tried, and when my timings are right, I just feel, for a moment, for a very timed second, at ease.

When I make dishes of this type, dishes that have lots of ingredients in relative short time of cooking, I like to have (almost) all the ingredients clean and cut in advance. Not only because that makes me feel cool (hahaha), but also because it let me focus on the cooking process itself and on which ingredient should go in the cooking pot and when.

Vegetable curry soup, with coconut milk and tofu, rice noodles, fresh basil and fresh coriander. A delicious and fun soup, time yourself half an hour and it’s ready.

Coconut Vegetable and Tofu Curry Soup
serves 6

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 head broccoli, cut into florets (about 7 oz/200 gr)
1 medium carrot, sliced into coins
1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
1 medium potato, cut into small cubes
1½ cups green beans (about 5 oz/ 150 gr), cut into 1½-inch/ 4 cm strips
14 oz/ 400 ml coconut milk
4 cups of water
1 tablespoon red curry paste
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon ginger, grated on a thin grater
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

for the tofu-
6 oz/ 150 gr firm tofu, cut into large cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil

for serving-
2 oz/ 50 gr rice noodles
1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped
1/2 bunch of basil

Instructions:
1. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot on a medium heat. Add chopped onion and curry paste and saute for about 3 minutes, while stirring. Add crushed garlic, grated ginger, turmeric, salt and pepper and stir well. Then add the carrot coins, the red bell pepper strips and the potato cubes, mix well with all the spices and continue to cook while stirring for another 2 minutes.
2. Add the liquids (water and coconut milk), stir and bring to a boil. Lower to medium-low heat and cook for 20 minutes.
3. While the soup is cooking, prepare the tofu: Cut the tofu into large cubes. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan and, when the oil is hot, add the tofu cubes to the frying pan and cook until golden, about 2 minutes on each side.
4. Prepare the rice noodles in a separate bowl, according to the package’s instructions. Drain.
5. At the end of the 20 minutes of cooking the soup, add to the pot the broccoli florets, green beans and tofu. Continue to cook for another 5 minutes.
6. Serving: In the soup bowl, put rice noodles and pour over the soup. Serve with a handful of chopped coriander and basil on top. Bon appetite
7. Keep the soup in an airtight container in the fridge up to 4 days.

Notes:
• The rice noodles can be cooked with the soup itself and not separately. Just keep in mind that if you keep the soup for the next day, the rice noodles will soak up a large portion of the liquids and you’ll probably need to add more liquids and adjust the seasoning. This is why I personally prefer to prepare the rice noodles separately and add them when served.
• The basil and the cilantro in the recipe are not garnish, they are an important ingredient in the flavors of the soup. don’t skip it.
• Of course, you can add different vegetables to the soup and vary it, just take into account their cooking time and schedule adding them to the soup accordingly.

הפוסט Coconut Vegetable and Tofu Curry Soup הופיע לראשונה ב- The Happy Lentils.

“Mom, these pants are too small for me, it’s because I grew up.” Ido, 7, tells me almost every morning in recent weeks. And I look – the pants barely reach above his ankles. You can see his entire socks.. How about that, they were too big for him just a while back. “Mom, these leggings are too tight for me,” Tamar, 9, but acting more and more like a 14-year-old, says, and immediately takes them off: “Throw them away”. How could they be too small for her, I refuse to believe and examine her lower body, this pair is one of my favorites, it’s thick and warm, I wanted her to wear them forever..

After a while of putting it off, I finally switched out the summer cloths to winter in my kids closet this last weekend, a really unnecessary operation, if you ask me, since about three-quarters of these clothes shouldn’t have been in their closet long ago, but rather in a donation bag. And the closet is like yelling at me- they grew up, your kids grew up in a year, they’re not as small as they used to be, look at all those clothes, they’re all small on them. And it’s not like I needed a reminder. Every day, even a few times a day, it feels like time slaps me in the face and reminds me how my babies are not so much babies any more. And still, I found myself moving to the higher shelves swimsuits, shorts and tank tops, knowing my kids will never wear them again, simply because I find it hard to part with them.

Last year I organised my entire closet using the KonMarie method. The KonMarie method is basically an approach to organization and decluttering (but goes much deeper then this), founded by Marie Kondo, which she describes in her brilliant book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”. The principle is simple- tidying up and discarding of objects so that you surround yourself only with… objects that make you happy, that spark joy(!). And according to the method I spread a-l-l my clothes, including bags and shoes, belts and scarves, and god knows what else I had in my closet. I held every garment in my hands and asked myself: does it makes me happy, does it bring me joy? You can only imagine that I finished the day with 10 (!) garbage bags packed with clothes and other accessories I didn’t need any more and a Japanese-like closet which included a very few items, but items that made me happy.

Organizing my kids closet using the KonMarie method didn’t go quite so smooth.. I did filter out quite a bit of clothes, but at the end of the process, my kids still had enough clothes they could wear every day during the season without having to do laundry even once. Obviously, the reason for this is emotional. The question I asked myself was whether the object brings me joy, and with my children, well, every garment reminds me of something, and separating from their clothes does not necessarily brings me joy, many times it brings me a burst of nostalgia and a sense of time slipping through my fingers. After all, it feels like just a second ago I folded Tamar body clothes from a ballet class and today I fold her girl scouts uniforms, knowing that it won’t be long till I’ll find myself folding other type of uniforms (in Israel army duty is mandatory) makes my heart miss a beat.

When my children were babies I would prepare them the famous babies soup and mash everything together, making sure that every teaspoon they swallow will include protein and carbs, vitamins and fats and minerals, all at once. In this respect (and many others), soup is a wonderful form of food, bordering on peace of mind. Today I spread everything on the plate, all the food groups are placed side by side, and they are the ones who choose what and how much to eat. And I look from the side, hoping that they will eat both from this and from that, not too much of one thing and not too little of another. And like with the clothes, I understand that these are not the pants that are shortening, but the legs that get longer. More and more choices are being passed on to them, the seasons are changing and time is flying by, and soon I’ll climb again to the upper shelves of the closet to put there all the winter sweaters, and then bring down again all the shorts, that will probably be a little shorter than they were the summer before.

I’ve always been in love with soups. Something in this warm, round bowl, which can hold a whole world in it, simply captures me. Red lentil and squash soup is a soup I make in the winter at least once a week, and it never disappoints. The coriander pesto gives the soup a twist, along with the chili pepper – don’t skip it.

Red Lentil and Butternut Squash Soup with Spicy Coriander Pesto
serves 8

Ingredients:
for the soup-
1 medium butter squash (about 600 gr/1.5 lb), sliced to large cubes
1 cup red lentils, washed and drained
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 cup coriander, chopped
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 cups water (about 1.5 liter/1.6 qt)

for the coriander pesto-
2 cups coriander, including stems
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
2 garlic gloves
1/2 green chili pepper (optional but recommended)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Instructions:
1. Using a mortar and pestle (or other kind of a grinder), crush roughly coriander seeds and cumin seeds.
2. In a large pot over a medium-high heat, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and add the crashed coriander and cumin seeds, and turmeric, stir for about 1 minute to open flavors. Add the chopped onion and squash, stir and fry for another minute. Add the red lentils and then water, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Add half of the chopped coriander (1/2 cup), reduce to a medium heat and let it cook for about half an hour, until the butter squash and the lentils are soft and ready.
3. Turn off the heat and add the remaining chopped coriander (1/2 cup). Mash the soup into the desired texture – you can use a blender or a potato mash. I like using a potato masher so that the texture of the soup won’t be so smooth.
4. Prepare the coriander pesto- in a food processor place coriander, pumpkin seeds, garlic, green chili pepper, salt and pepper. Processors to a relatively smooth paste texture. Drizzle in the olive oil while the food processor is still running, till you get the desired texture (the pesto should be relatively thick). Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
5. Serve the soup in a bowl with at least one tablespoon of the pesto, and more pesto on the side.
6. You can keep the soup in the refrigerator for up to four days, or freeze in portions. The pesto is kept well in the fridge for up to 10 days, and it is best to pour some olive oil over it to help preserve the freshness.

Notes:
• You can use any type of squash instead of the butter squash. You can also use sweet potato.
• If you don’t have a mortar and pestle or other spice grinder, crush the seeds using a rolling pin or even a tin can, but don’t skip this process, not only for taste reasons but also for texture reasons- it’s quite unpleasant to encounter with whole seeds in your soup..
• Soups, in particular legumes soups, tend to become thicker after a day in the refrigerator. You can add a little water to this out its thickness.

הפוסט Red Lentil and Butternut Squash Soup with Spicy Coriander Pesto הופיע לראשונה ב- The Happy Lentils.