Syn Free Lentil Soup (135 Calories)

I love lentil soup, and often have a can of Heinz lentil soup for my lunch. Sadly on the Slimming World Extra Easy diet a can of soup equals 9 syns! As I have only 15 a day this would be a bit of a waste, so I decided to make a big batch of my own and freeze the extra portions so it can be reheated quickly and easily.

The soup was really delicious, I’m not entirely sure how (the potatoes maybe?) but it tastes really creamy! It’s been a big hit with everyone that’s tried it.

This recipe made 7 large portions of soup, as I wanted not have to have bread to fill out the meal. If you do want to have bread with it you could probably get about 12 portions of soup from this recipe.

I blended this soup so I didn’t have to be too careful when chopping the vegetables, meaning it was even quicker to make! It was a nice consistency when blended too, not too watery, not too thick.

You could use homemade chicken stock for this recipe but as it requires a large quantity of liquid I just used stock cubes and didn’t add any extra salt.

I know on Slimming World it’s not necessary to count calories, but out of interest I decided to work it out and it came to about 135 calories for a large bowl.

Ingredients: 

Olive oil spray – 7 sprays (Ok, this is technically half a syn, but divided by 7 or 12 I figure it’s practically free! If you really want to be a stickler for the syn free thing use the 1 cal cooking sprays.)

Red onions – 2 medium-large (diced)

Garlic – 6 cloves (chopped)

Potatoes – 2 medium/large (diced)

Carrots – 6 large (chopped)

Celery – 4 stalks (chopped)

Dried red lentils – 12oz/350g

Tinned tomatoes – 2 400g cans

Chicken stock cube – 1 cube

Star porcini stock cube – 1/2 cube

Dried mixed herbs – 2 tablespoons

Dried chilli flakes – 1 tablespoon

Boiling water – 3 pints/1.5 litres

Hot sauce – to taste

Equipment: Chopping board, knife, large pan (non-stick, or fry the onions in a non-stick pan first), wooden spoon, ladle, blender, a large bowl

Method:

1. Spray the cold pan with the oil and fry the onions on a medium heat until starting to soften (add a little water if necessary).
2. Add the garlic and fry for a few minutes.
3. Add the other vegetables, lentils, tomatoes, stock cubes, herbs, and chilli, stir together and heat through.
4. Add the water and hot sauce and simmer until the vegetables are tender and the lentils cooked through, about 30-40 minutes.
5. Ladle the soup into your blender until the blender is about half full. Start blender off on a slow speed and work up to the highest setting until smooth. Pour into the bowl and repeat until all the soup is blended.
6. Cool and decant into freezer proof containers. This soup can be defrosted or reheated from frozen. Heat until piping hot and try not to boil.