Vegan Lentil Soup In 20 Minutes - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large yellow onion
1 large carrot
5 plum tomatoes
4 garlic cloves
2 teaspoons dried tarragon
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon paprika (Hungarian, if available)
6 cups water or 6 cups vegetable broth
2 cups brown lentils
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)
3 pinches fresh ground black pepper

Preparation

Place lentils in pressure cooker. Peel carrot, onion and garlic cloves, seed tomatoes. Add the vegetables, whole, to pressure cooker along with bay leaves (it's okay if the tomatoes are cut in half).
Add cold water or broth, salt to taste, paprika and herbs to pressure cooker and bring to boil, uncovered.
When it starts to boil, place pressure-cooker cover and seal. When the pressure-indicator rises let cook 8 minutes.
Turn off heat, carefully move handle to safe position to eliminate pressure. Wait for all steam to clear and open.
Discard bay leaf. Transfer onion, carrot (careful, it's really soft), tomatoes and garlic to a mixing bowl and blend with hand-blender. You may have to quarter the onion to get the blender to work on it. Return pureed vegetables to lentils, mix well and serve with French bread.