Sunshine Vegetable Soup

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This is my twist on a classic carrot and coriander soup, which I've called sunshine soup due to it's colour. I used various orange coloured, sweet tasting vegetables plus good old celery, onion and garlic to balance the sweetness. This soup is a great way to get several 5-a-day portions of vegetables down your kids at once!

• 4-6 carrots
• 1 small sweet potato
• 1 orange or yellow bell pepper
• 150g-200g/6-8oz butternut squash
• 2 sticks of celery
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• 1litre/1¾ pt hot vegetable stock (made with a stock cube)
• 25g/1oz dried red lentils
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• ¼ tsp turmeric
• black pepper to taste
• fresh chopped coriander/cilantro to serve

Peel and chop the vegetables into chunks.
Fry the onion in 1 tbsp olive oil, until soft.
Add all of the other veg and the spices to the pan and sauté for 5 minutes.
Pour in the stock and bring up to the boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer for around 20-30 minutes, or until all the vegetables are soft.
Liquidise in a blender until smooth.

Suitable for freezing.

Alternative: Make a smaller quantity of soup, using water instead of stock and omitting the pepper, for a tasty baby-food. Leave the vegetables in chunks, mash or purée depending on the age of your baby.

This post is part of the #FaveFamilyRecipes Competition with BritMums and Tilda Rice. Every pack sold will provide a meal to an expectant mum in need in support of the World Food Programme’s Mothers Helping Mothers initiative in Bangladesh.