Aubergine lentil coconut soup – aubergine linzen kokosmelk soup (GF-SF-DF-V)

After a fabulous after-summer with temperatures up to 24 degrees Celsius this weekend, we now storm into the autumn. What a great event. Although I am not the biggest fan of cold weather, I love this sweeping branches and dancing leaves and the sounds of thunder and rattling rain.

Indeed, sitting inside, with a big bowl of soothing soup, like the one I made with the very last aubergines I brought with me from Spain.

I visited my friends in Catalonia and helped them with the grape-picking, harvesting walnuts, mushrooms, almonds, making goat’s cheese and walking with the goat’s too!

I had such a great time and I really am grateful to have been part of their lives for 8 days, they are such a lovely, warm and caring family! They work so hard every day! I miss them already.

We ate so well too. Everything right from the vegetable garden which was still full of tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, herbs, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, chard, cress, rucola, etc. Like this picker’s lunch:

So this soup is for you guys!

To make this lovely rich soup you’ll need:

4 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 ½ cm fresh ginger or 1 tsp ginger powder, peeled and finely chopped

1 nora (dried Spanish pepper, sweet), deseeded

1 full tbsp curry powder

1 stalk lemongrass, a bit smashed, releasing its aroma

900 g aubergine, in big chunks

2 big tomatoes, in big chunks

2 tsp honey or other sweetener to make it vegan

1 tbsp tamari

1 cup red lentils

1 cup coconut milk

5 cups vegetable broth

Salt/pepper

Lime juice

Fresh coriander

Heat the olive oil in a big pan and add onion, ginger and nora, fry for 5 minutes. Add currypowder and lemongrass, bake together for 1 minute. Then add tomatoes and fry till they turn mushy.

Then add aubergines, lentils, honey, tamari, coconut milk and broth and bring to the boil. When it cooks, slow down the gas and let it simmer for 25 minutes till the aubergines are soft. 

Roughly blend the soup and bring to taste with a generous amount of lime juice, pepper and salt if needed and sprinkle with fresh coriander.

Enjoy!

Voor deze rijke soep heb je nodig:

4 el olijfolie

1 ui, fijngehakt

2 ½ cm verse gemberwortel, geschild en fijngesneden

1 nora, (gedroogde Spaanse peper, zoet)van zaad ontdaan

1 volle el currypoeder

1 stengel lemongrass, gekneusd, zodat het aroma vrijkomt

900 g aubergine, in grote brokken

2 tomaten, grofgehakt

2 tl honing of rijststroop voor de vegans

1 el tamari

250ml/ 1 cup rode linzen

250ml/ 1 cup kokosmelk

1250ml/ 5 cups groentebouillon

Zout/peper, naar smaak

Limoensap, naar smaak

Verse koriander

Verwarm de olijfolie in een grote pan en voeg ui, gember en nora toe, fruit 5 minuten. Voeg dan currypoeder en lemongrass toe en laat 1 minuut meebakken. Voeg dan tomaat toe en bak mee tot ze zacht zijn.

Dan is het tijd voor de aubergines, linzen, honing, tamari, kokosmelk en bouillon, voeg alles toe en breng aan de kook. Als het kookt, zet het gas laag en laat zachtjes 25 minuten  koken tot de aubergines zacht zijn. Pureer de soep grof en breng op smaak met ruim limoensap, peper en zout zo nodig en bestrooi met verse koriander.

Geniet!