This hearty soup is perfect for lunch with some crusty bread, sliced cheese and organic butter. You can vary the veg depending on what's in your fridge / in season at the time, but do include onions if possible. I suggest you don't leave out the ground cumin unless you don't like the flavour. The 'green' zing at the end could be any green herb really, and the spinach could be kale, chard or cabbage, you'd just need to cook these a bit longer than the spinach, an extra five mins or so would suffice. The lime could be substituted with lemon or even orange, or failing that, a dash of white, balsamic or malt vinegar. Enjoy experimenting!

Serves three as a main meal.

You'll need:

2 large handfuls of dried red lentils

Spice mix: 1 tsp each of cumin, paprika, curry powder, turmeric, salt, black pepper

A couple of large handfuls of veg, chopped into about 1cm cubes. I don’t peel them unless you have to.

1 onion, chopped roughly

3 cloves garlic, chopped roughly

Water to cover

The green zing! 2-3 large handfuls of spinach, a couple of sprigs of parsley, 1/2 lime, juiced

How to:

Boil the lentils gently with enough water to cover, also include the spice mix, and put on a medium heat for about 10 mins.

While that's happening chop all of the veg.

Add the veg apart from the green zing to the lentil mix, pop a lid on and boil on a medium heat for about 10- 15 min until the hardest veg is just tender. If it looks too dry, add more water.

Then add the green zing! Leave for about another 5 mins.

Blitz with a stick blender and serve.

This will keep covered the stove for about a day, and reheat easily, or store in the fridge for a couple of days in an airtight container.

Enjoy!