Pumpkin and lentil soup with smoked chicken

The combination of pumpkin and legumes is extremely successful. This soup is thick, rich, fragrant and very tasty. Lentils, smoked chicken and pumpkin go very well together, and the rest of the vegetables complement their flavor perfectly. If you like pumpkin and legumes, then you should like this soup.
From this amount of ingredients, a five-liter pot of soup is obtained.

Ingredients

• Smoked chicken breast (800 gr without skin)
• Red lentils (300 gr.)
• Pumpkin (800 gr. without peel and seeds)
• Onion (2.5 small onions)
• Carrots (2 large)
• Bulgarian pepper (4 medium)
• Hot pepper (3-4 small)
• Tomato (2 very large)
• Olive or other vegetable oil (1-2 tablespoons)
• Parsley (1/2 large bunch)
• Dill (1/2 large bunch)
• Celery greens (1/3 bunch)
• Salt (to taste)
• A mixture of peppers (preferably freshly ground, to taste)
• Black ground pepper (to taste)
• Smoked paprika (2 tablespoons)
• Curry (2 tablespoons)
• Dried garlic (1 tbsp.)
• Coriander (preferably freshly ground, 0.5 tbsp.)

Directions

1. Let's prepare all the ingredients. Rinse the lentils thoroughly under cold water until the water stops foaming. Peel onions and carrots. Wash and dry bell peppers, hot peppers, tomatoes and herbs. Peel a piece of pumpkin of the desired size from the peel and seeds. Remove the skin from the smoked chicken breast (I do not use it, so I immediately throw it away).
2. Bell peppers are cleaned from seeds and stalks. We cut the pumpkin into large cubes, onions, carrots and peppers into small cubes.
3. In a smoked chicken breast, we separate the meat from the skeleton. Cut the chicken meat and tomatoes into small cubes, finely chop the hot pepper and greens.
4. Pour the skeleton and washed lentils with cold water, bring to a boil and leave to cook over medium heat (on my electric stove 5 out of 9). In the process, from time to time we remove the resulting foam.
5. At the same time, in a well-heated pan, greased with olive oil, add the onion and simmer it over medium heat (on my electric stove 5 out of 9) under the lid until translucent, stirring occasionally.
6. Add the carrots to the onions and continue to simmer until the carrots are soft, stirring occasionally.
7. Add bell peppers and hot peppers, mix and continue to simmer until the peppers are soft, stirring occasionally.
8. We take out the skeleton from the pan, add chopped smoked chicken and pumpkin, add salt and all the spices, mix and cook everything together until the pumpkin is half cooked.
9. Add stewed vegetables, mix and continue to cook.
10. In a skillet freed from vegetables over medium-high heat (6 out of 9 on my electric stove), simmer the chopped tomatoes. Some of the tomatoes should be completely boiled, some should more or less retain their shape.
11. Add tomatoes to the pan, stir, bring to a boil (so that bubbles just appear), add chopped greens and immediately remove from heat. Cover with a lid and let steep for 15 minutes.
12. Pumpkin-lentil soup with smoked chicken is served just like that or, to your taste, with sour cream, mayonnaise or crackers.
13. Thick, fragrant and very tasty pumpkin-lentil soup with smoked chicken will be a great lunch or dinner.
14. Bon appetit!