Love Me Some Lentil Soup!

I love lentil soup!  It is a comfort food for me.  When we were living in NY, less than a block away was a Greek restaurant that made the best lentil soup I have ever had. Whenever I was feeling low I would treat myself to a cup – yum!

I have been experimenting with different recipes and I like this one because of the bacon, but I still think it needs something else – experimenting will continue on!

You should really soak your lentils at least overnight – which I did with some vinegar in the water, but for some reason this batch of lentils just did not want to cook – I ended up simmering the soup 2 hours longer than the recipe called for – maybe it was a change in the weather system here – not sure.

Lentil Soup (serves 8 – 10)

lentil soup served

Ingredients

2 cups dried lentils
1 Tbl apple cider vinegar
8 cups water (for soup)
2 slices bacon, diced
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrots
2 gloves garlic, minced
2 1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 (16 oz.) can diced tomatoes
2 Tbl wine vinegar

Note: This recipe called for bacon diced – because of the wording, I diced uncooked bacon figuring that it would cook with all the simmering.  The bacon bits are good in the soup, but next time I would cook the bacon (not to crispy), crumble it into the soup along with the bacon fat to add more flavor.

1. Place the lentils in a large bowl and cover with at least 4 cups of water, add the apple cider vinegar.  Cover and let soak for at least 12 hours.

Lentils soaking

2. Rinse the lentils and place in a large soup pot.

3. Add the water, bacon, carrots, onion, celery, garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano.  Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

Lentil ingredientsLentil all in

4. Add the diced tomatoes and the juice, along with the vinegar, cover and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Lentil tomatoes added

5. Season to taste.

Serve with some nice bread and you have a wonderful meal. Stella is just coming into soup and last year I found that I needed to puree all the soups I made for her – this year, so far she has enjoyed all the soup I have made! This one was a hit with her especially with some toasted sourdough bread!

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2 Responses to Love Me Some Lentil Soup!

  1. Candace says:

    I too have soaked lentils and had them not get soft. Here’s my “go to” recipe for lentil soup…cook 1-2 onions and 4 cloves garlic in olive oil. Add 1 large can peeled tomatoes and 1 1/2 cups lentils. Cover with water, bring to boil, cover and simmer gently for 1 hour. Adding cooked bacon sounds good. (I like that your recipe calls for celery and carrots.)

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