Red lentil, chickpea & chilli soup

Kcal 222, Protein 13g, Carbs 33 fat  5g, Sat 0g

Serves 4

• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• large pinch chilli flakes
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 140g red split lentils
• 850ml vegetable stock or water
• 400g can tomatoes, whole or chopped
• 200g carton chickpeas or ½ a can, rinsed and drained (freeze leftovers)
• small bunch coriander, roughly chopped (save a few leaves, to serve)
• 4 tbsp 0% Greek yogurt, to serve

• Heat a large saucepan and dry-fry the cumin seeds and chilli flakes for 1 min, or until they start to jump around the pan and release their aromas. Add the oil and onion, and cook for 5 mins. Stir in the lentils, stock and tomatoes, then bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 mins until the lentils have softened.
• Whizz the soup with a stick blender or in a food processor until it is a rough purée, pour back into the pan and add the chickpeas. Heat gently, season well and stir in the coriander. Finish with a dollop of yogurt and coriander leaves.

Tomato Soup

Kcal 123, Protein 4g, Carbs 13g, fat  7g, Sat 1g,

Serves 4

• 1¼kg/2lb 4oz-2lb 12oz ripe tomatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 1 small carrot
• 1 celery stick
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 squirts of tomato purée (about 2 tsp)
• a good pinch of sugar
• 2 bay leaves
• 1.2 litres/ 2 pints hot vegetable stock (made with boiling water and 4 rounded tsp bouillon powder or 2 stock cubes)

1. Firstly, prepare your vegetables. You need 1-1.25kg/2lb 4oz-2lb 12oz ripe tomatoes. If the tomatoes are on their vines, pull them off. The green stalky bits should come off at the same time, but if they don’t, just pull or twist them off afterwards. Throw the vines and green bits away and wash the tomatoes. Now cut each tomato into quarters and slice off any hard cores (they don’t soften during cooking and you’d get hard bits in the soup at the end). Peel 1 medium onion and 1 small carrot and chop them into small pieces. Chop 1 celery stick roughly the same size.
2. Spoon 2 tbsp olive oil into a large heavy-based pan and heat it over a low heat. Hold your hand over the pan until you can feel the heat rising from the oil, then tip in the onion, carrot and celery and mix them together with a wooden spoon. Still with the heat low, cook the vegetables until they’re soft and faintly coloured. This should take about 10 minutes and you should stir them two or three times so they cook evenly and don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
3. Holding the tube over the pan, squirt in about 2 tsp of tomato purée, then stir it around so it turns the vegetables red. Shoot the tomatoes in off the chopping board, sprinkle in a good pinch of sugar and grind in a little black pepper. Tear 2 bay leaves into a few pieces and throw them into the pan. Stir to mix everything together, put the lid on the pan and let the tomatoes stew over a low heat for 10 minutes until they shrink down in the pan and their juices flow nicely. From time to time, give the pan a good shake – this will keep everything well mixed.

Creamy fish & mussel soup

185 kcalories, protein 72g, carbohydrate 8g, fat 7g, saturated fat 3g,

Serves 4

• 500g pack mussels in creamy sauce (find these in the chilled aisle)
• 1l strong, hot fish stock (I used Knorr Touch of Taste concentrate)
• 500g floury potatoes, cut into sugar cube-size pieces
• 200g mixed fish
• small bunch flat leaf parsley

1. 1.     Drain the sauce from the mussels into a large saucepan and add the stock. Tip in the potatoes, cover and bring to the boil. Once boiling, take off the lid and simmer for about 12 mins or until the potatoes are very tender.
2. 2.     cut the fish into large chunks and roughly chop the parsley. Stir the fish and mussels into the soup, then bring back to a simmer for about 3 mins or until the fish has changed colour and flakes easily. Stir in most of the parsley, then serve scattered with the rest of the parsley