Anne Morgan Unlike most lentil soups, Delia Smith’s lentil soup isn’t blended, so whole green-brown lentils, smoked bacon and ribbons of cabbage stay in every spoonful. The bacon fries first, carrots, onions and celery brown at the edges in its fat, then the lentils, tomatoes and stock simmer gently for an hour, and the pot feeds 4 to 6.
Both editions of her Complete Cookery Course print it, in 1983 and again in the 1992 revision, with the same amounts and her note that it’s “a very substantial soup”. Twenty years on, it came back in The Delia Collection: Soup (2003) with Puy lentils.
In the pulses chapter of How to Cook Book Three (2001), she singles out green-brown lentils, with their hint of terracotta, as particularly good in soups. They keep their shape through the long simmer, and that’s what gives this pot its body.
What you taste first is the smoke from the bacon, then the sweetness of the browned carrots and onions, with soft lentils and a little bite from the cabbage. Crusty bread alongside turns it into supper.
Delia Smith’s Smoked Bacon and Lentil Soup
Course: SoupsCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy4
servings15
minutes1
hour15
minutes380
kcalChunky, smoky and filling, with whole lentils, soft vegetables and ribbons of cabbage in a tomato-tinged broth.
Ingredients
- For the soup:
175g (6oz) whole green-brown lentils, washed and drained
6 rashers smoked streaky bacon, rind removed and finely chopped
1 tablespoon oil
2 carrots, chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
2 celery stalks, sliced
225g (8oz) tin Italian tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1.75 litres (3 pints) home-made stock
225g (8oz) cabbage, finely shredded
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
salt and freshly milled black pepper
Directions
- Bacon: Warm the oil in a large, lidded pot and fry the bacon until its fat starts to run.
- Brown: Add the carrots, onions and celery, turn the heat up fairly high and keep tossing them for about 5 minutes, until they take on a little colour at the edges.
- Simmer: Stir in the lentils, the tomatoes with their juice and the garlic, then pour in the stock. Bring it to the boil, cover and simmer as gently as you can for about an hour, until the lentils are tender.
- Cabbage: About 15 minutes before the end, stir in the shredded cabbage and put the lid back on.
- Finish: Taste, season with salt and pepper, and stir in the parsley just before serving.
Notes
- UK tins of tomatoes are usually 400g, so use a little over half of one, or a small 227g tin.
- Taste before you add any salt, as the bacon and stock can both be salty, which is my own caution.
- The soup thickens as it stands, so loosen leftovers with a splash of stock or water. Cool it quickly, chill it, eat it within 3 days and reheat it until it bubbles all the way through.
FAQs
What changed in her Puy lentil version?
Puy lentils, mainly. In her Soup collection she calls the tiny greeny-black French lentils the best ones for it, though green-brown, with less depth of flavour, can be used the same way. That version swaps the rashers for 110g of smoked streaky bacon or pancetta, uses vegetable stock and serves 6.
It’s also quicker, with a 30-minute simmer, and the cabbage gets just 5 minutes, until it wilts. The method otherwise follows the same steps.
Can I use red lentils?
Not for this soup. In the same pulses guide she says split orange lentils have very little flavour of their own, because their outer skins have been taken off, and she always recommends whole ones.
They also collapse into a purée within minutes, in my experience, so you’d lose the whole lentils that give this soup its texture. Save them for a smooth, spiced soup instead.
Do the lentils need soaking?
No. Whole green-brown lentils go straight in, and both Cookery Course editions point out that they don’t need any soaking, just like the split peas in her pea and ham soup. Just rinse them in a sieve under the cold tap first.
I’d also tip them onto a plate and look them over, as the odd tiny stone can turn up in a bag of dried lentils. That’s my own habit rather than one of her steps.
How do I make a bowl just for one?
Her One is Fun (1987) has a leek and lentil soup made for a single serving. Just 25g of whole lentils simmer in 175ml of water or stock for 40 minutes, while a leek and a rasher of lean bacon sweat in 10g of butter.
Then everything simmers together with 55ml of milk, 150ml more water and a grating of nutmeg for 20 minutes, and it’s liquidised until thick and creamy. She scatters a little raw leek or spring onion on top.
What’s the quickest way to make it?
Her Black Forest ham and lentil soup in Delia’s How to Cheat at Cooking (2008) uses a 400g tin of lentils instead of dried. The vegetables and 75g of ham are whizzed fine in a mini-chopper, browned for 3 to 4 minutes, then simmered with 570ml of stock and a 230g tin of chopped tomatoes for 10 minutes.
A 100g bag of ready-shredded cabbage goes in for the last 5 minutes. It serves 2 to 3, or 4 as a starter, and this time the ham brings the smoke.
Which stock should I use?
Home-made, if you can. The Cookery Course list asks for home-made stock without saying which, while her 2003 version uses vegetable stock. A light chicken stock is what I’d choose, or a ham stock if you’ve boiled a gammon joint, which is my own idea.
