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Easy, fast, healthy, and so very good! Torn toasted pita bread in olive oil is a good addition to this soup.

Everyone have a special lentil soup recipe in their lives, one that sustained them and kept them warm during cold winter days.
It was unexpected, at my friends lunch little party, when she served us a hot warming soup in an espresso cup. A gorgeous soup, it was warming, hearty, and possessed a velvety texture that recalled some kind of pureed legumes, but it had a zesty and spicy flavor.
” It’s nothing, just a lentil soup” she said.
Lentil? It didn’t taste as lentils.
“Yes, red lentils, with some other vegetables, pureed and spiced with a little chilli powder and lemon juice.” She added.
As for me, I always cook my lentil soup with red lentil, but the other flavors that make that soup so special. I took the recipe and planed to be on my next day dinner menu. It scored high in my family records, my kids love it.

Unlike their more familiar brown and green cousins, red lentils are hulled and split when you buy them. This lets them cook much faster than their relatives, though they don’t hold their shape as well, making them problematic for salad and ideal for soup.
The Leek and pumpkin, the stars of this rich soup. The leek, is a vegetable in the same family as onions and garlic but have a more subtle flavor. It is perhaps best known for its use in soups. The pumpkin, when you say fall, you’ll always remember pumpkins, I love it.
Puree the finished soup will result in a creamy and thick soup. A good way to include the vegetable in kids meal, thus more appealing for the kids to eat it. To make it more kids friendly, I omit the chilli powder from the original recipe.

Top the soup with toasted pita bread pieces when serving, some chopped fresh parsley, and a squeeze of lemon juice for extra lemony flavor.

 Vegetable Lentil soup

2-3 tablespoon olive oil
2 cup red lentil
2 large leeks, trimmed, cleaned, and chopped
2 cups cubed fresh pumpkins
1\2 cup chopped onion
2-3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon cumin
salt and ground black pepper
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
juice of 1 lemon, plus more for the garnish
fresh parsley chopped
toasted pita chips

In a large pot, heat the oil, add the onion and the garlic, sauté until golden. stir in the leek, the pumpkin and the lentil, sauté for 4-5 min. Add the stock or water, the cumin, salt and pepper. Cover and let cook for a bout 20 minutes.
With a hand blender, or any blender available, purée the soup. Add lemon juice and adjust the salt and pepper flavour. serve with some toasted pita chips and some chopped parsley on the top.

For the toasted pita bread
Sprinkle the bread with olive oil, cut the bread in triangle shape, spread the bread pieces in an oven try, bake on 300 f for 10-15 minutes, it depends who thick is the bread.