French lentil soup / stew

Over the past week a number of my neighbours have been bedridden by various strains of the "flu". Thus, I thought it a nice gesture to distribute some warming and nutritious lentil soup. In a previous post I mentioned my affinity for French/puy lentils. I know that chefs/cooks like these particular lentils for their ability to retain their shape and texture during cooking, so I often come across them in various recipe books/magazines. Whilst browsing Skye Gyngell's: A Year in My Kitchen, I was pleasantly surprised and inspired by her recipe for Braised lentils. Although this recipe is modelled on Skye's I have added/omitted a few ingredients and chosen to serve mine as a thick soup/stew. Also, after cooking I chose not to remove the vegetables, instead choosing to let it cool before refrigerating overnight and then reheating the next day after cutting down some of the biggest chunks of vegetables. In hindsight I should have cut the vegetables smaller to start with, but how boring would life be if we all knew what we were doing to start with!

375gr puy lentils rinsed

stalk of celery roughly chopped

1 onion peeled and roughly chopped

1 carrot roughly chopped

3 cloves garlic peeled and roughly chopped

a good knob of fresh ginger peeled and roughly chopped

4 bay leaves

4 dried red chillies

handful of parsley roughly chopped

handful of coriander including roots roughly chopped

2 vegetarian chicken style stock cubes crumbled

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp white pepper

Place all ingredients into a stockpot, make sure lentils are covered with water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered for around 30 minutes or until lentils are cooked but still retain shape. Remove from heat and cool, then refrigerate over night. When ready to serve bring back to room temperature and reheat.

Serve with some generously buttered soft bread.