This is the soup I make when the fridge is nearly empty and nobody wants to go shopping. It needs a bag of red lentils, an onion, a few spices and forty minutes, most of which you spend doing something else.

For four

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion and 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 teaspoon each of ground cumin and smoked paprika
• 250 g red lentils, rinsed
• 1.2 litres stock or water
• Juice of half a lemon

Soften the onion and carrots in the oil for ten minutes. Add the garlic and spices and stir for a minute. Tip in the lentils and stock, bring to the boil and simmer for twenty-five minutes, until the lentils have collapsed.

Blend half of it, or all of it, or none. Season well, add the lemon juice, and serve with bread and a spoon of yoghurt.