Tuesday 5 June 2012

Irish Lentil and Bacon Soup

Today we have our 3rd guest blogger, the wonderful Ms. Ella Rose, and yes, she's on twitter too, so why not give her a shout and a smile @missellarose.  This is all about her...

I have always been really into food and cooking from a young age. Watching and tasting everything I could to learn all the techniques and recipes I could remember! I suppose that this is when my (border-line crazy lady) obsession with recipes began.

I love trying new foods, reading and writing about them, and last year started my own blog www.gourmetgob.blogspot.com . I love the idea that people can share my food with me through the internet. It feels great to hear when someone has successfully replicated one of my own recipes in their home. I spend most of my time feeding anyone who’ll eat and have a loyal legion of tasters!

Between cooking and reading other people’s blogs I occasionally find time to sleep!

Reading other blogs is a great way to get ideas, and connect with like-minded people. That’s is how I found Soup Tuesdays Blog. We follow the same people on twitter and I think we have a similar style of cooking which is why I’m so pleased to be guest blogging!

Now down to the nitty gritty, I got this recipe is from my partner’s mother and it is a classic in Northern Ireland, everyone has their own take on it. I have chosen to grate the carrots which gives the soup a lovely texture, other examples are adding spinach, using ham hock instead of bacon and adding in curry powder. A word of warning if using curry powder only add in a little to avoid creating




Ingredients
240g (a packet) of smoked bacon chopped
One chopped onion
2 Cloves of garlic
250g Red split lentils
3 peeled carrots


Method
1.    Fry the bacon in a pan until crispy and golden brown, remove from the pan and set aside.

2.    Gently fry the onion until translucent, then add in the garlic and cook for a further 5 mins. Add the bacon again to the pan, lentils and the stock.

3.    Cook for 30-40 mins until thickened, 15 mins before the end grate the carrots in.
Serve with crusty fresh bread, garlic bread or cheese on toast - perfect!





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