Find it tricky to get your 5 a day? Get them all in one bowlful of this delicious soup! A serving of this easy peasy 5 A Day Soup includes 1 whole portion of onions, carrots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and lentils, as well as garlic and a few simple spices to make this simple vegetable soup even more delicious!
Get your 5 a day… in one bowl!
Do you find it tricky to get your 5 a day? If so, you are going to love this soup. It includes 1 whole portion, per serving, of onions, carrots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and lentils. So you can literally get your 5 a day in one bowl!
To make this simple vegetable and lentil soup even better, I’ve also added garlic and a few easy spices. The result is a big bowlful of delicious soup that’s packed full of goodness… and all ready in under 30 minutes!
Why you need your 5 a day?
Most health experts agree that it’s important to eat your 5 a day… but why? Evidence shows that there are significant health benefits to getting at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day.
For a start, fruit and vegetables are a good source of vitamins and minerals. But they are also an excellent source fibre, which can help to maintain a healthy gut and prevent constipation and digestion problems. A diet packed with fruit and vegetables can also help to reduce your risk of heart disease, stroke and some types of cancer.
What is a portion for 5 a day?
5 a day means 5 portions of fruit and/or vegetables. For fresh fruit and vegetables this means an 80g serving of each vegetable. For lentils a portion is a 30g serving of dried lentils (which swells to 80g when cooked).
To ensure this soup contains your 5 a day it includes 80g each of onions, carrots, sweet potatoes and tinned tomatoes, and 30g dried lentils per portion.
But I’ve scaled it up to make 4 portions, so that’s 320g each onions, carrots, sweet potatoes and tinned tomatoes, and 120g dried lentils total.
(Actually it’s slightly more than 320g tinned tomatoes as a standard size tin is 400g and it seemed silly to leave a spare 80g of a tin left over, so I’ve thrown the whole lot in!)
I will warn you, this does mean you are getting a massive portion of soup, but it’s so delicious that I don’t think that will be a problem!
How to make 5 A Day Soup
This 5 A Day Soup is very easy to make… and only takes 30 minutes!
All you need to do is fry the onions, garlic, chilli flakes and spices. Then add the carrots, sweet potato, red lentils, tinned tomatoes, water, salt and pepper. Bring to the boil then turn down and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Blitz until smooth, and serve!
(Full recipe given in the recipe card below.)
What to serve with 5 A Day Soup
This 5 A Day Soup results in such a massive portion, that you may decide you don’t need any kind of accompaniment at all!
But if you are feeling extra hungry, I recommend serving this with homemade bread. My ever-popular Super Simple Wholemeal Bread would be an excellent option here. Or, if you want homemade bread super fast, why not try one of my delicious soda bread recipes, such as my Easy Irish Soda Bread with Yogurt or my Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread.
Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread
5 A Day Soup – perfect for ‘making ahead’
This 5 A Day Soup is a brilliant make ahead option. Make a big vat of it at the weekend, then freeze it in individual portions. Then you can take it to work to heat in the microwave… and feel super smug that you’ve achieved your 5 a day by lunch time every day! (Or heat at home and pop it in a thermos.)
To go with it, you could make a big batch of these easy soda bread rolls and freeze them too – pop one in your bag in the morning and it should be defrosted by lunchtime!
Make it your own!
This 5 A Day Soup is, of course, very easy to adapt with different combinations of veggies, pulses and spices. For example you could…
- Use parsnips, swede, pumpkin, butternut squash or (bell) peppers in place of the carrots and/or sweet potatoes and/or tomatoes
- Use passata or fresh tomatoes instead of the tinned tomatoes
- Use dried green lentils or dried puy lentils instead of the red lentils
- Use tinned chickpeas, butter beans or cannellini beans instead of the red lentils (You can add these before or after blending, depending on whether you want them blended in or left whole.)
- Use 2-3 teaspoons of mild or medium curry powder instead of the spices
- Leave the spices out altogether and use vegetable or chicken stock instead of the water
- Leave the chilli out and add in some fresh ginger instead
- Any combination of the above!
(Let us know what adaptions you make in the comments section!)
What to do with leftover 5 A Day Soup
Place any leftovers in a lidded container in the fridge, where they will keep for up to 3 days.
To reheat, tip into a saucepan, along with a small splash of water. Reheat over a medium heat until piping hot all the way through.
Alternatively, you can reheat this soup in the microwave.
Can you freeze 5 A Day Soup?
Absolutely! This soup freezes beautifully. Place the cooked and cooled soup in a lidded container in the freezer, where it will keep for up to 3 months.
(I prefer to freeze this soup in individual portions so I can use it for 1 person servings in the future – lunch for me when everyone else is out, for example.)
Reheat as above.
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
5 A Day Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 320 g onions (roughly 2 medium ones, diced)
- 2 cloves garlic (grated or crushed)
- ½ teaspoon chilli flakes (or to taste – optional)
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 320 g carrots (roughly 2 medium ones, chopped into small chunks - roughly 1cm / ½ inch cubes – See Note 1)
- 320 g sweet potatoes (roughly 1 large one, skin removed and chopped into small chunks - roughly 1cm / ½inch cubes – See Note 2)
- 120 g red lentils
- 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
- 1 litre water (fill the empty tomato tin 2½ times)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place the olive oil and diced onions in a large saucepan and gently fry for 5 minutes, with the lid on, until softened but not brown. Stir occasionally.
- Add the garlic, chilli flakes and spices. Fry for 1 more minute, stirring occasionally. (Add a small splash of water if it gets too dry.)
- Add the chopped carrots, chopped sweet potato, red lentils, tinned tomatoes, water, salt and pepper and turn up the heat. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat right down and simmer for 15-20 minutes with the lid on, or until the vegetables are tender and the lentils are quite soft.
- Tip the soup into a blender and blitz until completely smooth. PLEASE TAKE CARE AS THE SOUP WILL BE VERY HOT! (See Note 3.)
- If necessary, return the blended soup back to the saucepan and warm back up to your desired temperature. Add more water if the soup is too thick for your liking. You may also wish to check the seasoning at this point too.
- Serve with homemade bread.
Notes
- I find, because this soup is blended until smooth, there is no need to peel the carrots. Not peeling the carrots has no negative impact on the final soup, means you get extra goodness from the skin and saves you a job!
- Peeling sweet potatoes can be a bit of a pain. A little hack to speed things up is to cut the sweet potato into thick disks, then place each disk (flat side down) on your chopping board and chop the skin off using a knife, cutting downwards all the way around each disk. I find this far quicker and easier than peeling!
- If you prefer, you can use a stick blender or a potato masher, or leave the soup un-blended.
- Suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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Sarah says
Super easy . I cooked for quite abit longer to soften the carrots . The flavor was great . I added a bit of honey .
Eb Gargano says
Aw yay – I am so happy to hear you liked this recipe! Thank you for such a lovely review 😀