This is a really complex and tasty soup enhanced by the relish. Its great for mid winter when you crave summery flavours, as it uses tinned tomatoes, but the lentils provide something substantial as well. The soup has a light, very subtle tang of coconut. We use coconut powder in the relish, but desiccated coconut will work, as would some freshly grated coconut. If you can’t find any of these it is still worth doing

Soup:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, finely chopped

1 red pepper, deseeded and finely chopped

2 large carrots, diced

2 heaped tsps ground coriander

1 level tsps ground cumin

2 garlic cloves, crushed (optional)

2 x 400g tins of chopped plums tomatoes

150g red lentils, rinsed

160 ml of light coconut milk

Light soy sauce

Relish:

50g cashew nuts

20g coriander leaves

2 heaped tsps coconut powder or 20g freshly grated/ desiccated coconut (optional)

• Heat the oil in a large pan or wok. Add the onion, pepper and carrots, and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the coriander and cumin, cook through stirring constantly for 2 minutes

• Add the garlic, tomatoes, 250ml water, and the lentils. Add pepper but not salt at this stage. Bring to the boil and cook for 25-30 minutes until the lentils are soft

• Meanwhile, in a liquidiser blitz together the relish ingredients along with 3-4 tablespoons of water. It should from a thickish paste. Add a little salt, then decant into a small bowl for serving. Clean the liquidiser

• When the soup is cooked, liquidise to make a smooth, velvety soup. Return to the pan or wok and add the coconut milk. Gently reheat, adding a few drops of soy sauce until it reached the correct salt levels

• Ladle into bowls with a large dollop of the relish as topping and serve with bread and butter