This is the kind of soup that asks almost nothing of you. Nothing really needs to be measured, almost everything is swappable for what you’ve got in the garden or the pantry, and it freezes beautifully in single serves for nights when winter has got the better of you. The bones of the recipe come from Melissa Clark’s New York Times red lentil soup, but it’s been adjusted and re-adjusted until it became something we’d actually want to keep making. A dollop of homemade yoghurt or kefir, some coriander and a squeeze of lemon at the table makes all the difference.

Ingredients

• 45ml olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
• 1 large brown onion, finely chopped (about 200g)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 30g tomato paste (about 2 tablespoons)
• 10g ground cumin (1 teaspoons)
• 10g smoked paprika (2 teaspoons)
• 2 tsp Gochugaru (Korean Chilli) or  ¼ teaspoon chilli powder or 1 tsp cayenne
• 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 litre stock, or just make it up with Vegeta and/or chicken stock powder
• 300g red lentils, rinsed
• 100g 8 grain powermix, rinsed (optional) and add an extra 500ml of liquid or stock
• 2 large carrots, some` sweet potato, peeled and diced (about 500g)
• Juice of ½ lemon, plus more to taste and some wedges on the side
• 3 tablespoons fresh coriander, chopped
• A generous handful of finely sliced English spinach per serve

To Serve

• Plain yoghurt or kefir
• Lemon wedges
• Sumac for sprinkling
• Extra olive oil for drizzling
• Crusty bread or focaccia

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large, wide-based saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook gently until softened and golden, about 4 minutes. A wide base lets you brown the aromatics properly, and means everything else goes into the same pan — one pot, minimal washing up.
2. Stir in the tomato paste or tomato sauce, cumin, smoked paprika, chilli, salt and pepper. Cook for another 2 minutes, stirring, until the spices are fragrant and the tomato paste has darkened slightly.
3. Add the stock, lentils and carrots. Bring to a simmer, then partially cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Cook for about 30 minutes, until the lentils are completely soft and beginning to fall apart. Extra cooking on a slow simmer doesn’t hurt.
4. Using a stick mixer, puree about half the soup in the pot, leaving plenty of lentil and carrot texture.
5. To serve: ladle into bowls and stir a generous handful of finely sliced fresh spinach through each bowl — it will wilt in seconds in the hot soup. Add a squeeze of lemon, some chopped coriander, a spoonful of yoghurt or kefir, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of sumac. Serve with crusty bread on the side.

Notes

Substitutions. Use what’s there. Sweet potato instead of (or alongside) the carrot adds sweetness and body. Silverbeet works in place of spinach. A generous squeeze of good tomato sauce (Rosella no-preservatives is what we use) works fine in place of tomato paste if you don’t want to open a tin for one recipe. Homemade kefir is excellent in place of yoghurt — thinner, tangier, and there’s always a jar of it on the bench. None of these need fussing over.

Korean chilli for a kid-friendly heat. One teaspoon of gochugaru in place of the chilli powder gives a fruitier, smokier, less aggressive heat. Better for kids than ordinary chilli powder, and arguably more depth of flavour.

Make it a meal-in-a-bowl. Stir 100g of 7-Grain Power Mix into the pot at the same time as the lentils. The mix of pearl barley, millet, buckwheat, quinoa, green lentils, freekeh and mung beans turns this from a soup into a substantial pottage. It’ll thicken significantly on standing, so loosen with extra water or stock when reheating.

Stock. Vegeta or chicken stock powder both work. A mix of the two — Vegeta plus a good Chinese-style chicken powder like Bo Guar — gives more depth than either alone.

Indian-leaning version. Use ghee instead of olive oil, add 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger with the garlic, swap the smoked paprika for ½ teaspoon ground turmeric, and stir in 1 teaspoon garam masala along with the lemon at the end. Finish with yoghurt as above.

Freezing and reheating. Cool the base soup (without spinach, lemon or coriander added) and freeze in single vacuum-sealed serves for up to 3 months. Reheat gently with a splash of water, then add fresh spinach, lemon, coriander and yoghurt to each bowl at the table. The flavour improves overnight.