Middle Eastern Lentil Paprika Soup

Unusual, but very, very tasty, and easy to make.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
4 teasp sweet paprika
1 cup brown lentils, cleaned/rinsed
8 cups vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
4 tbsp tomato paste
2 teasp hot chilli sauce
4 tablesp fresh mint, chopped
salt + pepper to taste

Method:
1. Saute onion and garlic in oil in pot.
2. Add paprika and cook for a few minutes.
3. Add lentils and cook for a few minutes.
4. Add vegetable stock and bay leaf to pot. Bring to boil, simmer gently for about 20-30 minutes.
5. Stir in tomato paste, hot chilli sauce, and salt + pepper, cook for 10 minutes more.
6. Take off heat, stir fresh mint through, and serve.

Other points:
- I really like this with brown lentils, but you could probably use red.
- Brown lentils = continental lentils = Egyptian lentils = German lentils
- This is a mild soup, but make sure you use a proper hot chilli sauce for that great peppery kick. None of that sweet shit.
- Vegetable oil means sunflower, soy, a vegetable oil blend, or similar, never ever olive oil. The olive flavour is so very wrong for this sort of food. Stick it on your salads and pasta, not in curries.
- Based on recipe from the Oxfamshop Vegetarian Cookbook.

Faux Pho! (aka Vegan Vietnamese Pho Soup)

In Vietnam, people eat pho for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Personally I like to have it for breakfast on Sunday mornings! This is a version that best imitates the veg pho that I had when I was travelling in Vietnam with my partner – it is his recipe. Quantities may be a little rough, so taste-test as you go (as you always should!). Enjoy!

Serves around 4-6, depending on bowl-size/course…

Ingredients
2-4 finely diced chilli peppers (eg. birdseye)
1.5in piece of ginger, thinly sliced
1 sweet onion, chopped or diced
3 Litres of Massel’s Vegetarian Beef-style Stock*
1 cinnamon stick
5 star anise pods
1 finely diced garlic clove
lime, juiced
palm sugar to taste
fresh pepper to taste
bean sprouts, handful or two
rice vermicelli, cooked
1 bunch of coriander leaves, chopped
2 shallots, finely sliced
extra finely diced chilli pepper, optional

How To
+ In a stock pot fry the chilli, ginger and onion, with a little oil, till it is seared and a little crusty, but not burned. Add stock.
+ Crush then add the cinnamon and star anise. Add the garlic.
+ Simmer for 30min. Take off heat. Add lime juice, and a little bit of palm sugar until it is only slightly sour. Cover till served.
+ Get out some soup bowls. Add beansprouts, then hot vermicelli, shallots and coriander, and optionally fresh sliced chilli into each bowl. Pour the hot soup over the veg-noodle mix.
+ Serve. OMNOMNOM.

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*This is a dark vegetable stock. You could also use any other vegetable stock (maybe add a splash of dark soy sauce or Braggs to darken it a bit perhaps? ! probably not necessary). Massel brand stock can be found in any supermarket I’ve been in to in Australia – including Woolies and Coles. The tins of powdered stuff are great quality, but there are also stock cubes and tetra packs of liquid stock available. Massel is the best instant stock around, and it’s all vegan! Hooray!