Description
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with green lentil soup, but once you start making it with black ‘beluga’ lentils, you’ll have a hard time going back. These black beauties cook up melt-in-your-mouth tender, but still retain their structural integrity, which gives the soup both a thick, satisfying body, and a light, non-starchy mouthfeel.
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 4 ounces bacon, chopped
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion
- 1 cup diced carrots
- 1 cup diced celery
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
- 1 ¼ cups black beluga lentils
- 5 cups chicken broth, or as needed
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, divided
- 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, or as needed
Instructions
- Heat vegetable oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook and stir bacon in hot oil until bacon is browned and crisp
- 5 to 7 minutes. Add onion
- carrot
- celery
- and salt; cook and stir until onion is softened and translucent
- about 10 minutes. Season with black pepper
- cumin
- thyme
- and cayenne pepper.
- Pour lentils into bacon mixture and stir to coat completely in rendered bacon fat. Add chicken broth and bay leaf; bring to a simmer
- reduce heat to low
- and cook
- adding more chicken broth as needed
- until lentils are tender
- 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Season with salt
- black pepper
- and cayenne pepper to taste. Add 3 tablespoons parsley and stir. Ladle soup into bowls
- sprinkle remaining parsley over the top and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil.
Prep Time: 20 mins
Cook Time: 1 hr
Total Time: 1 hr 20 mins
Servings: 4