Chickpea and Lentil Soup With Homemade Wholemeal Bread

Salam Alaikum / Greetings readers,

Today I present to you a simple and comforting meal which is suitable for the plummeting temperature that comes with the change of season here in England. 
Homemade wholemeal bread can be heavy but not if you follow my recipe i promise! the only 'out there' ingredient that the original recipe called for, was a vitamin c tablet... as i didn't have one of those to hand i missed it out completely and still ended up with a loaf which was light, tender and a good nutty flavour comes from using wholemeal / wholewheat flour which is more expensive but healthier than bleached white flour.

You do get what you pay for in this instance although i should think processing flour to make it white would end up costing the manufacturer(is that the right word?) more in the long term?  

Now soup, my children are not yet lovers of spicy food. Even a pinch of black pepper is pushing it with my 3year old son but alhamduillah my daughter seemed to enjoy this while he stuck his nose up at it and ate the bread. I know it's common thing for toddlers to be picky eaters so i try not to worry too much, some days i will cater to my son's picky ways more than others because at the end of the day i don't want to be cooking separate meals for everyone for the rest of my days...am i alone on that?

Let's get down to the nitty gritty the recipes, peace until next time inshaAllah

Wholemeal Bread

Makes: 1 loaf (i use a 30x10x5cm loaf tin but you can use any you have but you will need to adjust the baking time i.e. keep checking after 3/4 of the time is up)

Ingredients

425g / 3 ½ cups strong wholemeal bread flour

50g / ⅓ cup plus 1 tbsp strong white bread flour

1 x 7g / 2 ¼ tsp sachet easy blend fast action yeast

1 ½ tsp salt

3 tsp brown sugar

up to 400ml / 1 ¾ cups warm water

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Measurments in green colour are estimates.

You may need extra olive for work surface if kneading by hand

Method

1. Put the flours, yeast, vitamin powder (if using), salt and sugar into a bowl and mix well. Add 300ml water, and stir in well, then pour in the olive oil and work in well. You should have a soft, sticky dough: if not, add a little more water. Cover and leave for 10 minutes.
2. Tip out on to a lightly oiled work surface, if using a stand mixer leave it in the bowl! Knead for 10 seconds, then put back in the bowl and cover. Repeat twice more at intervals of 10 minutes, then leave the dough to rest for 15 minutes.
3. Flatten the dough into a rough rectangle about the length of your baking tin, then roll up tightly, and put into a greased tin, with the join facing downwards. Cover and leave to rest in a warm place until it has doubled in height (at least 1½ hours).
4.  Pre-heat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/430F/Gas Mark 7 then turn the temperature down to 200C/180C Fan/390F/Gas Mark 6 and cook for a further 15–20 minutes, until the crust is a deep brown, and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Turn out on to a cooling rack.

Chickpea And Lentil Soup

Serves: 3 adults or 2 adults and 2 toddlers

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

½ tsp fennel seeds

1tbsp tomato puree

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground turmeric

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tin chopped tomatoes (400g)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbsp brown sugar or to taste

1 stock cube dissolved in 2-3cups warm water

¾ cup lentils that have been rinsed, soaked over night

1 ¼ cup canned chickpeas,drained and rinsed

3 stems coriander

1 dried bay leaf

salt and pepper, to taste.

Method

In a medium sized pot with a lid, heat the olive oil at medium heat and add onion and fennel seeds, cook gently for about 10minutes or until onions are translucent, stirring occasionally.

Add tomatoe paste, spices, garlic and a tiny amount of water to prevent spices from burning, sauté for a few minutes before adding chopped tomatoes, bay leaves and sprigs of coriander. Turn up the heat to high and bring to boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.

Add your stock (the cube mixed with water), lentils and chickpeas (you can leave the chickpeas out until 10minutes before the end but i like to add them now).

Season with a little salt, pepper and sugar remember you can add more once the soup has reduced a little and the flavours have melded together. Cover pot and let simmer for about 40 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Check for seasoning, add more of salt, black pepper and sugar as you like. Remove bay leaf and coriander sprigs before serving.