Rainy Day Red Lentil Soup

Sometimes good recipes happen by accident as this one did last night.  I had some leftover bacon from breakfast and decided to make Savory Split Pea soup from the Kula Mama website.  However, when I went searching for split peas in the pantry I came out with red lentils instead.  Bacon and lentils should go together, right?  Martha Stewart seems to think so because when I googled “bacon” and “red lentils” I came upon a quick and easy recipe from the Martha website.  I’m not one to argue with a culinary master so I decided to give it a shot.

I dared to make a few changes here and there (I know, how could I?!!  It’s Martha Stewart!!!).  What can I say?

I like to live on the edge.

In the kitchen.

Kula Baby isn’t wild about chunks of onion in his soups so I decided to blend up the onion, carrots and garlic to make a yummy veggie base.  Then I added the lentils, broth, sage, spices and bacon.  The result was surprisingly creamy and good.

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Rainy Day Red Lentil Soup

4 slices of cooked bacon, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 small sweet onion, chopped

4 carrots, chopped

1 1/2 cup red lentils

5-7 sage leaves, chopped

1 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

5 cups chicken broth

Salt

Directions

In a large saucepan, heat a small amount of oil and cook bacon until done (about 3-5 minutes).  Set bacon on paper towel and remove most of the oil from the pan.  You can leave about 1 tablespoon for flavor.

Using the bacon/oil in the pan, saute onion, garlic and carrots for 5 minutes until tender.

Place cooked onions, garlic and carrots in blender or food processor and blend with a little chicken broth until smooth.  Return mixture to pan.

Add sage, lentils, spices and bacon to pan and simmer until lentils are tender (about 20 minutes).

Variation:

I added a cup of cooked brown rice to the soup and made it into a full meal for Kula Baby at dinner.  He loves eating rice which means he also loves soup with rice.