Quick red lentil soup

A couple of years ago, I lived in a student house in Groningen and occasionally my friends would come over to dinner in my humble room near the city centre. Most of the time we would arrange to meet on Tuesday evenings, at my place or at someone else's. One day however, we decided to go out late in the evening to check out a jazz café we had heard of and never been to. I am not a party animal and I hate loud music, drunk people and crowded bars, but this place seemed decent enough. Unfortunately it was completely deserted and there wasn't any live music as we hoped, so we left and went for a pointless walk. My two friends, boys, hinted they were cold and hungry and seeing we had nothing better to do, I invited them to come over for a quick dinner. It was 1 am, but that didn't stop me from making a full pot of red lentil soup! Each time I make this dish, I think back to that funny day. I would never dream of cooking in the middle of the night nowadays, especially something as heavy as legumes, but back then I didn't mind staying up late. Red lentil soup is probably one of the quickest meals in my collection of recipes. Since my student days I have made this dish very often, adapting it every now and then, and it has evolved into the recipe I share with you today. The picture is of an older version with no tomatoes, but if you follow the instructions in this post you will get a wonderfully orange soup! Ingredients, serves 3 - 250g red lentils - 1,25 L water - 1 medium onion, finely chopped - 1 garlic clove, crushed - 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped - 2 stalks of celery, roughly chopped - 1 bunch of flat leaved parsley, finely chopped - 1/2 can of peeled tomatoes - 1 bay leaf - 1 dried tomato -1 tsp of smoked paprika (pimentón) - lemon juice, to taste - salt and ground black pepper - extra vergine olive oil Put about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a pot and fry the chopped onion until soft. Add the carrots, celery and garlic and sauté shortly. Add the peeled tomatoes and crush them with a spoon. Continue with the lentils, bay leaf, dried tomato and cover with water. Bring to a boil, cover and let cook 15-20 minutes, until the lentils fall apart. If you are in a hurry, you could serve it already, but I recommend adding some 10 more minutes to the cooking time in order to make the flavours soak in better. So, 30 minutes in total. Remove from heat, season with salt and black pepper. Stir in the lemon juice, smoked paprika and chopped parsley. Serve hot with country bread and a fresh salad. Buon appetito!