Quick Tomato, Bacon and Lentil Soup Recipe

“Lentils are friendly—the Miss Congeniality of the bean world.” ~ Laurie Colwin

Soup is one of those all-time comfort foods for a very good reason. Problem is, so many soup recipes take hours to cook. That’s why I love this one. It’s fast to make, economical, and entirely delicious. It takes less than ten minutes to prep the soup ingredients which magically merge together in just twenty minutes cooking time to produce a hearty, nutritious meal in a bowl.

Seeing I’m busy writing like a mad thing just now, fast soup is a very good thing indeed. 🙂

Note: For a vegetarian/vegan soup, omit the bacon and substitute vegetable stock.

Ingredients to feed four hungry adults:

2 large rashers of middle bacon, 1 x 400g tin of organic lentils – rinsed and drained, 1 x 400g tin of diced tomatoes, 3 cups of chicken stock/bone broth (or use a stock cube/stock powder if that’s what’s in the cupboard), 2 ribs of celery, 2 carrots, 1 medium potato, 1 onion, 3 cloves of garlic – chopped finely or put through a garlic press, 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, 1 heaped tablespoon of butter (or olive oil or fat of your choice), salt and pepper.

Note: Using butter gives an extra creamy richness to the flavour of the soup, and helps you to absorb all those good fat-soluble vitamins and minerals.

Method:

Chop celery, carrot, onion, and bacon into small pieces. Add to large saucepan with the butter and garlic over medium heat and stir until fragrant.Then add lentils and stir well.

Add tinned tomato and stock, the diced potato, and the tomato paste. Pop in a pinch of salt and a grind or two of black pepper. Bring to the boil and then reduce heat to medium and cook for twenty minutes or until vegetables are soft.

Serve with some crusty bread or hot buttered toast. The soup will keep for five days in the fridge, and freezes well.