Peel and chop the sweet potatoes and onion/shallot.
De-seed and roughly chop the bell peppers.
Cut the top off the garlic bulb.
To a large baking pan, add the sweet potatoes, peppers, onions, tomatoes and the garlic bulb cut side up.
360 g sweet potatoes, 200 g bell peppers, 400 g whole tomatoes, 100 g shallot, 1 bulb garlic
Drizzle everything in the pan with a little olive oil, sprinkle over the harissa and a little salt and mix it in.
1 tbsp harissa paste, 1 tbsp olive oil, sea salt to taste
Add a little extra oil to the garlic bulb.
Roast at 180℃ or 360℉ for 35 minutes or until the sweet potato is soft and a little caramelised and the garlic is soft when you (carefully) squeeze it). - Mix half way to ensure even cooking.
Allow to cool a little.
While the vegetables are roasting, add the dry lentils to a sauce pan with the water (OR vegetable stock) and the boullion powder.
180 g red lentils, 500 ml water, 2 tsp boullion powder
Simmer over a medium heat until soft. Stir occassionally and don't let the lentils run dry!
Add the lentils and all the cooked roasted vegetables, including the roast vegetable juices to a blender. Blend until creamy.
Don't waste the juices from the baking tin- they should all get used in the soup when blending!
Put the soup into a large pot to reaheat. If it's too thick, add a little water (vegetables can vary quite dramatically on how much liquid they give out, so go by how you like your soup.
1 tsp lemon juice
Taste and add a little lemon juice or white wine vinegar bit by bit to balance the sweetness and add any salt or extra harissa to taste.
Optional Tahini Dressing
In a small blender or jar, blend or mix up the tahini, lemon juice and water . Add water bit by bit until you get a pourable consistency.
2 tbsp tahini, 30 ml lemon juice, 60 ml warm water, sea salt to taste
Mix a small amount of harissa with olive oil, then drop over the soup, along with the tahini dressing for a pretty swirled effect that also tastes delicious.
¼ tsp harissa mixed with a little olive oil
Notes
Don't waste the juices from the baking tin- they should all get used in the soup when blending!
If you don't want to blend the soup in a blender, cook the lentils in a larger pot, and tip the roasted veggies into that pot and use an immersion blender.
Serves 6 small portions for an elegant starter for dinner or 4 larger portions suitable for lunch!
You can roast the vegetables in the air fryer- keep the same temperature, but the time should be around 30 mins to roast, depending on your air fryer basket it might be less.