While living in slight poverty, I learned simple cooking that is cost effective. This dish is cheap and vegan.

Ingredients

The quantities of these can vary depending on what you have availabe and your personal taste. I used these.

2 potatoes

1-2 carrots, more adds more sweetness

250g of dried lentils -I use red ones-

Oil for frying

4 cloves of garlic

A chunk of ginger

black pepper

cumin

powdered red chili, labelled extra hot

powdered paprika

Two ground cloves

curcumin

Something for acidity

Process

Chop the ginger and garlic into small pieces, add oil to the pot and cook them on high temperature. You can also cook other aromatics if you are using them here.

Wash the potatoes and carrots and chop them into small pieces and wash the lentils you are using. After the garlic and ginger are fragrant, add the potatoes, carrots and lentils into the pot with the garlic and ginger. Add water so that the vegetable pieces are mostly covered with water. The plan here is to let the lentils absorb water so that the soup consistency is slightly thick. It is best to add slightly too little water in the beginning, you can check the soup as it simmers and include more later if you want a lighter soup.

Now add all the spices into the soup. Do not add too much salt or lemon juice/vinegar, you can increase the amounts when the soup is done and season to taste. Bring the pot to a boil and turn the heat to low and keep the pot covered and simmer. Check the soup as the lentils absorb water and add more water if the soup is too thick.

The soup is done after 1 hour of simmering for red lentils and 1 hour 30min for green ones. Taste the soup and add salt, acidity and spice to taste.

Home cooked soups do not need to be exact in their recipes. Pay special attention to not over salt the soup and keep the temperature low when simmering to avoid burning.