With a high speed blender at home you can not only make creamy nut butters, smooth smoothies, sauces, dressings, ice creams, hummus in minimum amount of time - you can also make a delicious soup in almost no time at all. Mix your raw veggies until completely smooth, then just transfer to a saucepan and let the whole thing simmer for a couple of minutes. READY! Add some kind of topping (can be shaved veggies, beans, nuts or seeds or quinoa as I have here) for a even more hearty soup. I also added some red lentils, if you want to do the same and are using soaked + sprouted ones you can just add them without any extra simmering, but it you're using raw ones you would want to simmer for about 10 minutes, on low heat. 

In this recipe I use carrots and tomatoes as the base for the soup - but you could also add fennel, parsnip, pumpkin or whatever you find in you fridge. You could also make a green soup with broccoli, peas, spinach etc. Feel free to vary the soup depending on what you're craving at the moment! Also, this is a clever recipe if you want to make a smaller amount of soup, to serve one or two. Just use half of everything! 

Carrot- and tomato soup with red lentils and quinoa

Serves 4

Ingredients

600 g carrots

400 g tomatoes (or same amount crushed tomatoes, without citric acid)

1 small red onion

1 garlic clove

4 dried organic apricots

1 liter water

1 tbsp unfiltered apple cider vinegar 

2 dl / 0.8 US cups red lentils (optional, preferably soaked + sprouted)

1 handful fresh herbs of your choice 

unrefined sea salt or mountain salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Topping

2 dl / 0.8 US cups cooked red quinoa (optional)

250 g cocktail or plum tomatoes in different colors

1/2 dl / 0.2 US cups hemp seeds 

1 handful of fresh parsley, chopped

How to

Wash and slice the carrots in to smaller pieces. Cube the tomatoes. Peel the onion and cut in to smaller pieces. Put in a high speed blender with apricots and water, blend until completely smooth. I use one of the three timed blend cycle buttons (35 seconds, 60 seconds and 90 seconds - I use the 90 seconds one for soups like this) on my Omniblend high speed blender to make sure the soup gets really creamy. Add some water if the soup is too thick (especially if you want to add red lentils in the next step, as the lentils will absorb some of the water). 

Transfer to saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add 2 dl red lentils (soaked over night + sprouted for 24 hours) and let simmer for about 2 minutes*.

Wash and cut the tomatoes in half. Toss together with the parsley and quinoa.

Pour the soup in to 4 bowls, top with the quoinoamix and hemp seeds.

* If you're using raw red lentils let simmer for about 10 minutes, until soft but still "al dente".