In a soup pot, put the vegetables such as onion, garlic, carrots, zucchini, piece of butternut squash, tomato, celery stalks, lentils, cilantro and parsley. Add hot peppers if you like(optional).
Season with salt, pepper, ginger, turmeric, cumin, coriander, cinnamon. Add paprika and tomato paste.
Place the soup pot over medium high heat.
Cover all the vegetables with hot water.
Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to medium low. In the first few seconds of boiling, remove the outer skin of the tomato.
Let cook covered for about 20 minutes.
In meanwhile, put the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
Add the meat pieces and let brown for 1 to 2 minutes.
Add chickpeas.
Cover with hot water.
Season with salt (about 1 teaspoon for now).
Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to medium low and let cook covered for about 30 minutes.
Once the vegetables are cooked, remove the celery stalks, parsley and cilantro. Discard them.
Put the vegetables in the blender and process until smooth.
Pour the puréed vegetables in the soup pot placed over medium heat.
Add the meat and chickpeas with the water in them.
Add the Quinoa. Mix and bring to a boil
Reduce the heat to medium low and let cook for about 30 minutes.
Stir the soup from time to time so that the Quinoa won’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
Adjust the seasoning and garnish with chopped cilantro, parsley or both (optional).
Serve with lemon wedges on the side for squeezing over.