savory saturday: pumpkin and red lentil soup

Ingredients:

1 T olive oil

1 long red chilli

1 onion

1 lb 2 oz butternut pumpkin

12 oz sweet potato

4 c vegetable stock

1/2 c red lentils

1 T tahini

Directions:

Chop onion, seed and chop red chilli, peel and cube pumpkin and sweet potato. Give pumpkin seeds to boyfriend to bake into a tasty snack. (The "chilli pepper" at the market looked suspiciously like a bell pepper, but I was not in a position to be picky, since there were no other options--pretty sure it wasn't a chilli.)

Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add onion and red chilli. Cook 2-3 min or until soft. Drinking wine while cooking = mandatory.

Reduce heat to low. Add pumpkin and sweet potato. Cook 8 min.

Turn heat to high. Add stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 10 min.

Add lentils and cook 7 min, covered. (I didn't have red lentils, so I used ordinary, boring brown ones... still tasty!)

Blend soup in batches. Add tahini and blend until smooth. If necessary, reheat on stovetop. Serve hot with crusty bread.

Yum!

I added chili powder to the soup because I like things spicy, and it still didn't quite do the trick. Maybe if I had a real chilli pepper instead of an imposter pepper... oh well, next time! Another note: the soup is actually better on Day 2. Something about refrigeration really seemed to bring out the flavor!