Lentil Soup
Full of flavour and comforting on a cold day...one of our favourite soups that freezes well too!
Ingredients
- 5 ham stock cubes I like Knorr (see Tips)
- 2l boiling water
- 155g unsmoked bacon lardons (see Tips)
- 2 large or 3 medium carrots (approx. 300g), peeled and diced into 1 cm pieces
- 300g swede peeled and diced into 1 cm pieces
- 1 large leek (approx. 340g), halved lengthways and thinly sliced
- 200g red lentils rinsed
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large jug, crumble and dissolve the stock cubes in 2 litres of boiling water.
- Heat a large soup or casserole pot on a medium heat, and add the bacon lardons. Fry until the bacon starts to colour (2 to 3 minutes). If the lardons are quite lean, add a small amount of olive oil (approx. 1 tsp).
- Add the diced carrots, swede, sliced leeks, rinsed lentils and stock. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a gentle simmer – cook for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally and skim off any scum that appears at the top.
- Season to taste, blend (if you wish - see Tips) and enjoy with some homemade bread or savoury scones.
Notes
- For vegetarians, use vegetable stock cubes or pots and leave out the bacon.
- It can be left as a chunky soup or you could blend (using a hand blender) the whole lot for a smooth soup, or blend half so that you still have some chunks of vegetables – the choice is yours.
- If you can’t get bacon lardons, use unsmoked back or streaky bacon and chop it up.