Ingredients
1 tbsp Olive Oil
200 g white onion diced (1 medium onion)
175 g celery diced (3 stalks)
250 g carrots diced (4 carrots)
500 g red lentils (This gives a thick soup, reduce if you prefer a thinner one)
3 l chicken stock (Ham stock can be salty)
2 chicken stock cubes (Ham stock cubes can be used for a deeper ham flavour)
1 l water
1 tbsp lea and perrins (Worcestershire sauce)
250 g Bacon pieces (Smoked or unsmoked)
Carrot diced and poached
Curly Parsley chopped
Curly parsley for garnish
Salt and pepper to taste
Tools
Large stock pot
Pressure cooker
Skillet
Pot
Hand blender
Directions
Step 1
I use a pressure cooker, first prepare vegetables add the olive oil to the preheated pressure cooker pot and gently sauté for 10mins.
Step 2
Add salt and fresh ground black pepper to the vegetables stir and add the stock to the pot.
Step 3
Wash the lentils and drain, add to the pressure cooker pot and stir, you can add extra stock cubes if desired and top up with remaining liquid.
Step 4
Pressure cook on high for 10 minutes, remove lid and with a hand blender, blend until smooth. (You can leave chunky if you prefer)
Step 5
Poach the additional chopped carrots in a small pan of unsalted water for 15 minutes until tender.
Step 6
In a dry skillet add the bacon and cook until crisp but not burned the liquid will boil off and the bacon fat will render creating a fond on the skillet, remove the bacon and drain on a piece of kitchen paper.
Step 7
Deglaze with the cooking water from the carrots scrapping all the fond off to clean the pan, add this to the pressure cooker pot along with the poached carrots. Add the Worcestershire sauce and check seasoning. (Check for salt incase it’s not needed)
Step 8
Chop up the crispy bacon pieces and stir into the soup.
Step 9
Serve with fresh curly parsley, and home made bread. Enjoy
