A lentil soup for a blustery day.

I have just made  a vat of this soup: it's just lentils, water, carrots, potatoes, a bay leaf or two, a sprinkling of chilli, if you like, and some spinach. It is also substantial, cheap and, well, mealy in a way I appreciate. Serve with bread and cheese --this is my very own bread bin on the right: I would feel that things were insecure if that bin were empty--or, maybe, keep it in mind to have round your fire and sparklers on bonfire night -- in which case, the chilli is not an option, it's obligatory.

Take 500g of red lentils, rinse them and pick them over and then put them in a big deep pan. Cover them with water: you will need twice as much water as lentils. Is that precise enough for you? Now add six roughly chopped carrots. As you may know if you're been reading me for a while, I always buy organic carrots and generally I do not bother to peel them, just do a quick top and tail and a little wash or scrub.

Now, to the pan add six medium potatoes, cut into large chunks, peeled or not (for this, though, peeled is probably going to be better), two bay leaves and then a big handful of spinach, roughly chopped -- or use frozen chopped leaf spinach: a great product for soups and curries, I find. Throw in about a heaped teaspoon of red chilli flakes or a whole chopped fresh red chilli and bring the lot to the boil. When it boils, skim off the froth and then simmer for about half an hour, after whch time you can season your soup with salt and pepper to taste. If you like, you can blend the soup; I prefer it as is or just mashed down gently with a fork so that it has plenty of texture still. Oh -- the soup works well with some home-made chicken stock if you have some knocking around. My freezer currently has vats of it and I've also started freezing chicken carcasses in order to make into a huge vat of stock at a later date if I just don't have time there and then. I got the idea for this from India Kinight's book, Thrift.-- a joyful book I would recommend because it made me laugh out loud. As did The Shops. Here they are
 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thrift-Book-Live-Well-Spend/dp/1905490372
 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shops-India-Knight/dp/0141011483
And finally
http://twitter.com/indiaKnight

I have, since childhood, enjoyed a soup like this with big chunks of cheddar cheese dropped into it, going molten as you eat from a bowl or slurp your soup from a cup. But you couild grate it. Try a mature cheddar. Parmesan is good, too.

Here, by the way is a shot of part of my kitchen. It's not wildly conventional, is it?