This soup is not a starter, it’s a filling meal in itself and whilst you can have it with bread, you probably won’t want to.
This recipe makes a lot of soup, about 10 good servings. We split it up into plastic tubs and freeze so we’ve a quick meal ready for when we’re busy.
Being a lentil & bacon soup recipe, it’s not suitable for vegetarians but the bacon is just a flavouring really and it still tastes great if you omit the bacon.
Ingredients for Lentil & Bacon Soup Recipe:
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 500 grams of carrots, chopped
- 500 grams of tomatoes, skinned and chopped – or can of tinned chopped tomatoes
- 500 grams red lentils
- 250 grams of smoked streaky bacon, chopped
- 50ml tomato puree
- 30ml curry powder – I used a mild Madras
- 1 desert spoon of ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon of salt.
- 2 litres of vegetable stock (I used stock cubes, chicken or pork would do as well)
- Good slug of olive oil or vegetable oil
Method for Lentil & Bacon Soup Recipe:
- Skin the tomatoes using boiling water and then roughly chop. Chop the onion, garlic, carrots and bacon.
- Make up the vegetable stock in a pan so it’s hot and ready to add to the soup.
- Take a large saucepan with a heavy base and add enough oil to well cover the base. Heat this up and then add the curry powder.
- After a minute add the bacon, let that start frying and then add the onions and garlic. Keep stirring for a minute so nothing sticks.
- Then add the chopped carrots, tomatoes, tomato puree and lentils. Stir around to coat everything and add the cayenne and black pepper.
- Pour on the stock and add the salt. With some stock cubes you may find they’re salty enough anyway. Best to be cautious as you can add more seasoning at the end if needed.
- Bring to a good boil and then turn the heat right down, put a lid on the pan and simmer for about half an hour until the lentils are mushy.
- Blitz with a hand-held blender in the pan or use a food processor. If it’s too thick for you, add some more stock to thin out. Check the seasoning is OK for you and add more if you wish.
Can I just check the quantity of the black pepper please?
It seems rather a lot. (1 dessert spoon)
That is how much we would use as we love pepper and it does make a lot of soup! Take it down in quantity if you’re not as much of a fan.
Just made your lentil and bacon soup. Chopped the veggies finely and didn’t puree, it was absolutely fantastic. Lovely amount of spice and pepper. Will make it again! Thanks for the recipe, Janet