The Garden of Eaden: RECIPE FOR BLOOD RED HALLOWEEN SOUP

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Kids and adults alike love nothing better than seasonal, gorey food during the Halloween holiday. A personal favourite is my very own recipe for blood red Halloween soup and it works well on two levels. Firstly, it really does look like a bowl of congealing blood - and secondly, not only does it taste absolutely superb, it is fantastically healthy for you. However, it does have one secret ingredient - a single carrot 'Purple Haze'. Why secret? Well, its not really, but it is the key to getting that authentic dark red bloody colouring. I don't ever remember seeing carrot 'Purple Haze' in the usual supermarkets, but I do grow my own. If you can't get carrot 'Purple Haze' then use a normal carrot, but instead try and find as deep a red colour sweet pepper as you can find.

Ingredients

2lb/900 grams of tomatoes - peeled and quartered ( or 2 tins of chopped tomatoes)
2 x Medium Onions - chopped
1 x carrot 'Purple Haze'- roughly sliced
1/2 a small swede - cubed
1 x large red pepper
400 gram or a tin of red kidney beans
100g of red lentils
4 slices of smoked bacon (or not if you are vegetarian)
3/4 pint of chicken or vegetable stock
3 tbsp of olive oil

1 heaped tsp of cumin
1/4 tsp of chili powder - this is the amount that I use to suit my taste, you may need more or less.
Salt and freshly ground pepper added according to taste

To begin with you need to prepare the lentils. Place the lentils in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly for 10 minutes uncovered. Reduce the heat and allow the lentils to simmer for a further 15-20 minutes. Drain well and leave to one side while you prepare the next lot of ingredients.

Place the bacon, pepper, onions, carrot, swede, and olive oil - into a suitably sized pan and allow the vegetables to gently cook in their own juices for 5 minutes or so.

Next, add the tomatoes, cooked lentils, stock and spices (not the salt and pepper) and bring to the boil. Keep a close eye on it though because as soon as it boils drop the heat back down and allow the mixture to simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove from the heat and puree the mix until it is silky smooth using either a hand-held blender or in a liquidizer. Pour into warmed soup bowls and try to enjoy it without getting freaked out!

For related articles click onto:
Asparagus Soup
Chicken Soup
How to Grow Onions From Seed
How to Grow Onions from Onion Sets
How to Make Gelato
How to make Plum Chutney
How to Make and Prepare an Asparagus Bed
How to Make and Prepare an Onion Bed
How to Make my Recipe for English Onion Soup
How to make my Recipe for Parsley Soup