Lentil soup.
Hey guys, Mark Murphy here.
I'm here to show you one of my favorite recipes
using things just out of my pantry, lentil soup.
I boiled some water because I like to let my lentils
sort of loosen up a little bit before we start cooking them.
This doesn't take too long.
So, I'm gonna take about a cup of lentils,
toss them in the bowl and then I'm just going to cover them
with some hot boiling water and while those are sitting
they're gonna sort of relax,
they're just gonna feel good in there.
I'm gonna let those soak for a little bit,
put the other side,
and now we're gonna get all of our flavor.
We're gonna be flavoring these lentils
and flavoring this soup.
I'm gonna start off by turning on my pot
where I'm gonna be cooking my whole thing,
putting a little bit of extra virgin olive oil
in there because you can't go wrong
with a little extra virgin olive oil.
I'm gonna start cutting up a little bit of bacon
'cause I had a couple of slices of bacon in the fridge.
That's gonna give some nice flavor to my lentils.
I'm used to using like four or five slices of bacon,
I didn't want to use it all because
tomorrow morning my kids are gonna want bacon for breakfast.
Get that sizzling, we're gonna be adding a little bit
of garlic, so we're just gonna smash that,
give it a quick little chop.
I'm just gonna make a pile here of all the aromatics
while my bacon is sort of rendering a little bit,
I want those flavors to come out.
And because it's soup, you gotta remember,
you want to be able to cut the ingredients
that you're putting into a soup
and they don't all have to be perfect,
they don't have to be diced exactly the way you want it,
but you do have to make it so it goes in fits on a spoon.
You have to remember that.
Can you guys smell this at home?
Look at that, bacon's rendering, oh, hard to see.
I've got my celery, carrots, garlic,
I've got a white onion, I'm gonna throw that
in there as well.
I am gonna put a little bit of salt and pepper in there.
Now, we're also gonna be adding some herbs to this
and now because of the time of year, where you are,
I grow some Rosemary in my garden.
This is last year's Rosemary that,
I always at the end of the season,
I'll pick a bunch of Rosemary,
I'll dry it out and I'll put it in jars
so I can have it all winter, very, very handy.
And then I have this new ingredient
somebody sent me, Turkish oregano buds
which I've just started using.
You could use this regular oregano if you have it.
(food processor buzzing)
I'm gonna take my aromatics, dump them in there.
Now, we're gonna take our lentils
and we're gonna check them out.
See, they've almost doubled in size
since I started because they're sort of getting imbibed
by the water that's gotten into them.
So, I'm gonna take these lentils
and I'm gonna put them in my soup.
I'm also gonna use the hot water that was in there.
I'm probably gonna have to add more water
because I'm not gonna have enough water for the soup.
And I am gonna add my little packet
of chicken stock seasoning because I don't have
any chicken stock, so I want to use this.
You could also use a bullion cube,
but remember these are also a little bit salty
so you want to put a little less salt than usual.
And of course, let's not forget that the bay leaf.
So, now we're just gonna let that come to a boil,
let it simmer for about a half hour.
We're gonna start finishing it off
by adding a bunch of spinach.
This is about four ounces of spinach
and then what I like to do is finish off this soup
with a little bit of Dijon mustard.
Now, this is up to you, about a tablespoon,
I like a little extra, maybe extra squeeze in there.
I'm gonna make sure that it is gonna be in there,
just want it to all melt in the soup,
gives the soup a little bit of spice,
a little bit of depth I find.
You're also gonna wanna dig that bay leaf
out of there, you don't want to eat that.
Oh, there it is.
Interesting, I always like taste the bay leaf
when it comes out.
I find it's very satisfying, very flavorful.
I always like to serve my lentils with a little bit
of olive oil on top of it, just makes it so good.
Viola!