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.
