Spotting Lunch - Red Lentil Soup

Sometimes I crave a good bowl of soup. Something rather new to me (my parents weren't too adventurous with foods when I was growing up) are lentils. I had lentil soups several times thus far and greatly enjoy it. When I was looking up some soup on TasteSpotting and found rhyleysgranny's soup, I was rather excited. I saw a dish with lentils cooked on Barefoot Contessa the other day, and finding another recipe for using them is going to inspire me to try cooking with lentils.

Photo from tea and wheaten bread

Red Lentil Soup
via tea and wheaten bread

Ingredients

250 gms/8 oz smoked streaky bacon
1 medium sized onion chopped
1 medium potato chopped
2 or 3 carrots chopped
2 red/orange/yellow pepper chopped (The more wrinkly they are the sweeter they are)
225g/8oz red lentils
1 teaspoon of paprika
A good pinch of cayenne pepper
A 400g/14oz can of tomatoes
900mls/1 1/2 pints approx. chicken stock (Keep some more to the side in case you find the soup too thick)
Black pepper
A little oil

Add any veggies around that need using up.


Method

Cut up the bacon and fry gently in the oil.
Add onion and spices and cook slowly until soft.
Add the carrots potatoes peppers and tomatoes then the lentils.
Give it all a good stir.
Add the stock and simmer until the lentils are nice and soft.

Using a stick blender, purée the soup.
Add more stock if you find it too thick.

It freezes well too if you are like me and incapable of making a small pot of soup.


I love how simple this recipe is - a great thing for trying a new major ingredient! One of my favorite ingredients is crème fraîche, which would be perfect to top the soup off. I'd have a simple salad and some bread with this bowl of soup to make a nice lunch.

Here's to new ingredients and full bellies.
- Cait

Grab a Knife and Fork

Pull up a chair and enjoy my plate...

I've been working on the idea of a food blog for awhile now... The thought sprang into my mind one night, I'm not sure what exactly brought it on - but I knew it would be a fun idea. I love to cook and share the things that I make with others. I also love the restaurants around Bucks County and I'm always up for trying a new one. There's also an abundance of fresh produce from local farmers markets, farm stands, farm co-ops, and pick your own in the area.

I plan on posting daily (or close to daily) about the meals I've made (perhaps even just made that day), about some of my favorite cooking shows on Food Network, cookbooks I love and use often, cookbooks I'm looking forward to getting, kitchen tools/gadgets, restaurants I've recently visited, and any food adventures that happen to pop up (like apple picking, the Strawberry Festival in Peddlers Village, berry picking, etc). I've been wanting to plan days to post things like cookbook and restaurant reviews - but I haven't really settled on which day I'd like to do that...

I was going to start this blogging journey on a Sunday or Monday - but after messing with Photoshop CS4 and creating a header for the blog I had to post something. I was pretty happy with the result and excited to start sharing. I have a lot of pictures to edit and organize and I need to try and find links to some of my favorite restaurants. I also might head out with my camera and photograph some of the restaurant locations because some of the places are in amazing spaces.

Here's to warm ovens and full bellies.

- Cait