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Yesterday I came back home with a sore throat, and because I don’t like being sick, I escaped to medicine: by that I mean a hot soup, a drink with ginger-honey-lemon and a blanket. This soup is incredibly satiating as it contains lentils and chickpeas. As a child, I never liked legumes: but when you stop eating red meat, legumes are among the best sources of protein and therefore necessary. They are also rich in fibre, they protect against bad cholesterol levels and have a lot of vitamins and trace elements. Personally, I prefer to soak all legumes the day before I eat them to remove the phytic acids and the enzyme suppressants which make you feel bloated and promote indigestion that is often followed by their consumption. By soaking them, you increase the bioavailability of thiamine and calcium, so they need less cooking time. The star of this recipe is sweet potato, which you add in the end after you cut it into noodles with a spiralizer. If you don’t have a spiralizer you can simply cut the sweet potatoes into cubes, the same taste will prevail. The saffron also gives a special flavour. It’s the perfect lunch when you need energy on cold winter days, or for evenings when you’re hungry!
Ingredients for about 4-5 portions
– 1 spoon of olive oil
– 2 tsp of ginger powder
– 2 tsp of turmeric
– 1 tsp of smoked paprika
– ½ tsp of cinnamon
– ½ tsp of nutmeg
– 1 pinch of saffron, which has been soaked in 2 spoons of hot water for about 15 minutes
– 3 onions, finely chopped
– 400gr of tomatoes
– 170gr of tomato paste
– 350gr boiled chickpeas
– 350gr lentils
– 1 sweet potato, cut into noodles with the spiralizer
– 3 slices of lemon
– 1.5 litres of water
– Some fresh coriander for decoration
Preparation:
– Cook the onion in olive oil and spices in a large saucepan. If it starts to get sticky, you can add some water, and cook for about 10 minutes until the onion is caramelized
– Add the chickpeas, lentils, tomato sauce, saffron with its water, lemons and water and lower the heat to boil the ingredients for about 20-30 minutes until the lentils are softened.
– In the last 10 minutes, add the sweet potato noodles
– Garnish with some coriander and serve with whole grain croutons