This Easy Lentil and Bacon Soup is packed full of flavour, super simple to make and takes just 45 minutes. Perfect for busy days, when you still want to eat well.
A British classic!
Lentil and bacon soup is such a classic – and for good reason! This delicious soup is packed full of flavour, but also incredibly easy to make… and budget-friendly too.
Better still, it’s chock full of healthy veggies and lentils… with just a small amount of bacon… but that bacon goes a long way when it comes to flavour!
Incredibly, this soup comes in at just 456 calories and takes just 45 minutes to make. And, of course, it can be made ahead of time and reheated just before serving. Perfect for those hectic midweek evenings when you have very little time or energy to cook, but still want to eat well.
How to make Lentil and Bacon Soup
Making Lentil and Bacon Soup is so easy!
All you need to do is fry diced bacon, onions, celery and garlic. Next add the carrots, potato, red lentils, chicken stock, a bay leaf (optional – but recommended!), salt and pepper. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until the lentils and vegetables are quite soft. Finally, blend until smooth (or leave the soup chunky, if you prefer).
For a little extra flourish, serve the soup garnished with some extra fried lardons – but you can omit this step if you want to keep things simple!
(Full recipe given in the recipe card below.)
Make it your own!
This Easy Lentil and Bacon Soup is very easy to adapt to your own personal preferences and/or whatever you have in your fridge and cupboards. You could:
- Use turkey bacon, instead of regular bacon
- Use leftover cooked ham or chicken, instead of bacon
- Use vegan bacon if you want this to be veggie/vegan
- Use brown or green lentils instead of red lentils
- Use a tin or pouch of cooked lentils, instead of dried lentils
- Use a tin of beans (e.g. cannellini beans, haricot beans or chickpeas), instead of lentils
- Use vegetable or ham stock, instead of chicken stock
- Use tinned tomatoes or passata, instead of chicken stock
- Use whatever herbs you like
- Any combination of the above!
(If you try any of these adaptations, let us know how you get on in the comments section below!)
What to serve with Lentil and Bacon Soup
This Lentil and Bacon Soup is delicious served with homemade bread. For example:
Alternatively, if you are short on time, why not try one of my delicious homemade soda bread recipes?
Easy Irish Soda Bread
What to drink with Lentil and Bacon Soup
This soup pairs beautifully with oaked Chardonnay, from somewhere like France, California or South Africa, or a gutsy Sauvignon Blanc from somewhere like New Zealand or Chile. A white Rioja is another great option here. If you prefer red wines, a light and fruity red, such as a young Pinot Noir, Beaujolais or Dolcetto would be your best bet.
What to do with leftover Lentil and Bacon Soup?
If you end up with leftovers, this soup keeps very well in the fridge and is very easy to reheat. Simply place the cooked and cooled soup in an airtight container in the fridge, where it will keep for up to 3 days.
To reheat, tip into a saucepan with a splash of cold water, bring to the boil and then simmer for 5 minutes or until the soup is piping hot all the way through.
You can also reheat this soup in the microwave, if you prefer.
Can you freeze Lentil and Bacon Soup?
The soup can absolutely be frozen! In fact, it’s a really great option for filling the freezer. (Top tip – make double and freeze half!)
Place the cooked and cooled soup in an airtight container in the freezer, where it will keep for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight in the fridge and reheat as above.
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
Easy Lentil and Bacon Soup
Ingredients
- 180 g lardons (or diced bacon) plus 90g / 3¼oz extra for garnish (optional – See Note 1)
- 2 onions diced
- 2 sticks celery diced
- 3 cloves garlic crushed or grated
- 300 g carrots diced (no need to peel – See Note 2)
- 150 g baking potatoes peeled and diced (See Note 3)
- 200 g red lentils
- 700 ml chicken stock (from a cube is fine)
- 1 bay leaf (optional, but recommended!)
- Salt and black pepper to taste (see Note 4)
Instructions
- Place a large saucepan over a high heat for 1 minute. Add the 180g lardons to the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes, until golden. Stir frequently.
- Turn the heat right down to its lowest setting, then place the diced onions and diced celery into the same pan and gently fry for 5 minutes, with the lid on, until softened and lightly browned. Stir occasionally.
- Add the garlic and gently fry for 1 minute, with the lid off, stirring occasionally.
- Add the diced carrots, diced potato, red lentils, chicken stock, bay leaf (if using), salt and pepper, and turn up the heat. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat right down and simmer for 20 minutes with the lid on, or until the lentils and vegetables are quite soft. (See Note 5.)
- (Optional) 5 minutes before the soup is fully cooked, fry the remaining 90g lardons in a small frying pan over a high heat for 2-3 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy.
- Remove the bay leaf from the soup pan, then tip the soup into a blender and blitz until completely smooth. PLEASE TAKE CARE AS THE SOUP WILL BE VERY HOT! (See Note 6.)
- If necessary, return the blended soup back to the saucepan and warm back up to your desired temperature. Add more water if the soup is too thick for your liking. You may also wish to check the seasoning at this point too.
- Serve the soup garnished with the extra fried lardons (optional), and with homemade bread on the side.
Notes
- If you wish, you can fry up some extra lardons / bacon to garnish the soup with. If you choose to go down this route, I recommend you fry up an extra 90g lardons, as per step 5. Alternatively, if you prefer to have chunks of bacon in your soup (rather than the bacon blended into the soup) you can fry all the bacon at step 5 and add it into the soup at the end.
- I find, because this soup is blended until smooth, there is no need to peel the carrots. Not peeling the carrots has no negative impact on the final soup, means you get extra goodness from the skins and saves you a job!
- You can use any type of ‘floury’ potato for this recipe. I recommend using the type of potatoes that are sold in the supermarkets as ‘baking potatoes’.
- I prefer to only add black pepper to this soup, as the salt content of the stock cube makes this soup salty enough for my tastes.
- If you dice the potatoes and carrots up small, they will easily cook in 20 minutes. Different brands of lentils take different lengths of time to cook. The brand I use takes 20 minutes. Do check the packet first, in case yours take longer than 20 minutes.
- If you prefer, you can use a stick blender or leave the soup un-blended.
- Suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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