Red Lentil Soup Recipe for a Rainy Day

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

Course: Soup

Author: Kula Mama

Ingredients

• 4 slices pasture-raised organic bacon
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• 1 small sweet onion chopped
• 4 carrots chopped
• 1 1/2 cup red lentils
• 5-7 sage chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 5 cups chicken broth
• sea salt

Instructions

1. 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.
2. Using the bacon/oil in the pan, saute onion, garlic and carrots for 5 minutes until tender.
3. Place cooked onions, garlic and carrots in blender or food processor and blend with a little chicken broth until smooth. Return mixture to pan.
4. Add sage, lentils, spices and bacon to pan and simmer until lentils are tender (about 20 minutes).
5. Variation:
6. 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.