Tuesday 22 January 2013

Not just a load of old lentils!

I love lentil soup.

Delicious, savoury & warming as well as cheap and easy to make.



You need:
  • A chopped onion
  • A slice of bacon chopped - this is optional, but I had a lone slice of smoked bacon lurking in the fridge, and I do find that smoked bacon adds a certain something to lentil soup.
  • A small carrot diced. My carrot is in matchsticks but that's because I "rescued" it from leftover salad that we had last night!
  • 1 heaped teaspoon of marigold vegetable stock powder. (This is my favourite substitute for real stock, but feel free to use any stock cube)
  • A couple of big handfuls of red lentils rinsed well. (I think there is probably about 8oz lentils)

Fry off the bacon, carrots and onions in a teaspoon or so of oil. Add the lentils, stock powder and two pints water. Bring to the boil and simmer until the lentils have turned to mush - about 20-30 minutes. At this point you can either serve as is or for a smoother soup give it a whiz with a stick blender.


Told you it was easy!

I have on occasion been known to just chuck the lot in the pan together without bothering to do the saute bit first and it still turns out OK. When I am using bacon however I like to brown any fat on the bacon first as I can't abide eating bits of white fat!


3 comments:

  1. I've just made a pot of thick and chunky veg and chicken soup, using a few bits of leftover chicken, a rubbery old carrot and baking potato found lurking at the back of the veg shelf in the fridge, plus some onion and parsnip, stock and there was some left over shredded savoy cabbage, so I've hacked it with the scissors and chucked that in too. It smells, and tastes because of course you have to taste regularly, don't you, delicious!
    Love lentil soup too! I always love your foodie things, think I need to move next door!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your title is the name of one of my favorite cookbooks :)
    I love cooking with legumes, so cheap and hearty...x

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, I've got that cookbook too - great frugal recipe ideas.

    ReplyDelete

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