Healthy, Hearty, Bacon and red lentil soup

What you will need

• 4 large carrots
• 2 white onions
• 4 celery sticks, washed
• 3 cloves of garlic peeled
• 2-3 sprigs of thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 stalks of parsley (keep the leaves aside for garnishing)
• Maldon sea salt
• 6 black peppercorns
• 2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 medium white onions, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 small red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• 4 rashers of Spoiltpig Smoked Back Bacon with the fat removed and cut into small pieces
• 200g dry red lentils, washed
• 1 tin (400g) plum tomatoes
• 1ltr vegetable stock (as per above)
• Parsley leaves (as per above)

How to prepare

To make the vegetable stock grate all the vegetables into a large pyrex bowl. Add the herbs, peppercorns, cloves of garlic and the parsley stalks and season well with salt. Cover the vegetables with approx. 1.5ltrs of boiling water and leave to one side until cool. When the mix has fully cooled, strain through a sieve and throw away the veg, keeping the stock to use in the soup later.

In a large saucepan heat 2tbsp extra virgin olive oil and cook off the onions with a pinch of salt until soft and slightly translucent. Add the crushed garlic and chilli and cook for a further 5-6 minutes. Add the chopped Spoiltpig bacon and cook through, stirring well.

Add the washed lentils and the tinned plum tomatoes, smashing the tomatoes as you mix them into the pan. Cook for a few minutes before pouring in enough of your vegetable stock to cover the ingredients in the pan. Bring to a rolling boil and then simmer uncovered, for 20mins by which time the lentils should be nice and soft. Remove from the heat.

Ladle roughly half the soup into a blender and blend until it’s a nice smooth consistency. Pour back into the pan with the rest of the soup and stir well so that you have a nice texture to the soup. Heat through once more, season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve in warm soup bowls with freshly chopped parsley leaves. Yum.