Easy Red Lentil and Bacon Soup
An easy and very tasty soup that's really great comfort food 🙂
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp rapeseed oil
- 3 medium white onion (peeled and chopped)
- 4 rashers bacon (fat largely removed and chopped)
- 1.5 pint water
- 200 g red lentils (rinsed)
- 4 tsp vegetable bouillon
- 0.5 tsp dried parsley
- 5 medium carrots (350g, scrubbed and sliced)
- 575 g potatoes (scrubbed and cubed)
- 6 stalks celery (sliced)
- 2 slices wholemeal bread (optional)
- 0.5 tbsp butter / spread (optional)
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a medium sized pan.
- Fry the onions and bacon in the oil for 5 minutes.
- Add the water, lentils, parsley and bouillon and bring to a boil.
- Turn down to a simmer for 20 mins.
- Meanwhile steam the carrots, potatoes and celery for 20 minutes.
- Blend the veg (including onion and bacon with a hand blender until it's your desired consistensy - I like it to still be pretty lumpy.
- Mix the blended veg with the lentils.
- Add extra water if required to get to the required consistency.
- Heat through and serve.
Notes
Prep Tips:
I have done this in two pots to allow for a mixed texture soup. If you want to blend all of it, or none of it, you can cook the veg in the same pan as the lentils. Just allow 40 mins rather than 20.
The half slice each of bread and butter is optional, my family just refuse to accept soup without any bread! If you leave it out the meal is still balanced, you save about 50 calories each and the GL drops to 18.
Health Tips:
Processed meats like bacon aren't that good for you, so make them an occasional treat rather than a main staple. Other processed meats include ham, chorizo, low quality sausages and smoked fish.
Try and get organic potatoes, carrots and celery so you can eat the skins (there will be less chemical contamination). This means less waste AND you'll get more of the nutrients as they often sit just under the skins of veg and are lost when we peel them too thickly.
Eco Tips:
Try to get local bacon from an organic farm. Does your butcher let you take your own containers to buy meat?
Potatoes, carrots and onions are generally easy to get out of packaging. Sometimes it's only the huge potatoes that are available, but they work in most recipes in my experience!
NUTRITION: Amount and (% RDA)
Calories: 594kcal (30%)Carbohydrates: 78g (26%)Protein: 22g (44%)Fat: 22g (34%)Saturated Fat: 4g (25%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 5gMonounsaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 15mg (5%)Sodium: 370mg (16%)Potassium: 1683mg (48%)Fiber: 24g (100%)Sugar: 11g (12%)Vitamin A: 13115IU (262%)Vitamin B1: 1mg (67%)Vitamin B2: 0.3mg (18%)Vitamin B3: 5mg (25%)Vitamin B5: 2mg (20%)Vitamin B6: 1mg (50%)Vitamin B12: 0.1µg (2%)Vitamin C: 43mg (52%)Vitamin D: 0.1µg (1%)Vitamin E: 3mg (20%)Vitamin K: 42µg (40%)Calcium: 143mg (14%)Copper: 1mg (50%)Folate: 320µg (80%)Iron: 6mg (33%)Manganese: 1mg (50%)Magnesium: 133mg (33%)Phosphorus: 434mg (43%)Selenium: 13µg (19%)Zinc: 4mg (27%)
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
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