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As noted yesterday, I was really in the mood for something colourful and something that would go well with my red and white quinoa and my grumpy disposition. Well what’s more colourful and cheerful than lemons and limes? Plus given the sour mood I was in yesterday, this soup was more than a little appropriate. Both Fialonia and I really enjoyed it; I was particularly pleased because I like all things lemon and lime (except for lemon jelly roll – that’s just wrong).

*inspired by Eat, Drink, and be Vegan

Cheerful Citrus Soup:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large-ish onion, diced
3 stalks of celery, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp mustard seeds (I used brown)
1 1/4 tsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp oregano
1 1/4 tsp thyme
1 1/2 cup dry red lentils
1 19 oz tin chickpeas
1 small-ish yellow zucchini (could use green too, of course)
1 large tomato
5 cups water (if you have a little white wine, replace 1 cup with that)
3 bay leaves
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice and lime juice. Roughly two medium lemons and one lime.

Dice/mince all of your veg. Put the onions, celery and garlic in a big soup pot with the olive oil and saute on medium heat. Once the onions are translucent, add the salt, pepper, and other spices and keep stirring for about 5 minutes. Now add the lentils, the zucchini, the tomato, the water, the bay leaves, and 2/3 of the tin of chickpeas. Stir it all together and then bring to boil. Once boiling, turn things down to low, cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes. Stir in the lemon/lime juice and remove from heat. With a hand blender, puree the soup until somewhat smooth but with a little texture. Pop back on the heat and stir in the remaining chickpeas. Done!!

The picture above shows the leftover lunch soup I had today – I stirred in 1 cup of baby spinach leaves to up the greens factor and skipped the quinoa for some “rustic” bread. But last night the soup stood alongside a 1/2 cup of mixed quinoa. Yum!!