Lentil soup with apple and bacon

 

Still cooking new soups. But we might see 50 degrees later this week. Sure, there's still snow on the beach, but Sea Salt is open again.

Lentil soup with apple and bacon

From Food and Wine, November 2016, a recipe from Vivian Howard’s cookbook "Deep Run Roots"

Ingredients

6 slices of thick-cut smoked bacon

1 medium leek, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced

2 celery stalks, diced

1 medium carrot, peeled and diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger or ginger paste

1 teaspoon ground cumin

8 cups chicken broth

½ cup apple cider

1 cup green lentils

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and diced

1 teaspoon chopped rosemary

Method

In a large saucepan, cook bacon until crisp. Remove to a plate. In drippings, saute leek, celery, carrot, garlic and ginger until they begin to soften. Stir in cumin and cook a minute until fragrant. Stir in broth, cider and lentils. Bring to a simmer and cook until lentils are tender, about 40 minutes.

Stir in apple and rosemary and cook another 10 minutes until apples are softened. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serves 6.

Rating: Nice flavor with bacon and cumin. Not the lookiest soup, as is the case with most lentil recipes (except the pretty red ones), but one can’t have everything.