KATKAT'S KITCHEN

I have been putting off making the real Winter soups for a while, thinking wishfully I can stave off the changing seasons by continuing to eat salads, but today I had to give in and eat a warm rich satisfying Puy Lentil Soup with Caramelised Onions. You can read more about the health benefits of lentils in general here. Although Puy Lentil Soup with Caramelised Onions is satisfying enough for a supper my husband loves them withsweet potato bhaji’s and although I feel it is a mixture of two different food cultures I have to admit to sneaking one when I make the two dishes together. There is someything very comforting about the crunch of the potatoes and the lentils.

Puy Lentil Soup with Caramelised Onions

Ingredients

4-5 smoked bacon rashers
4 medium sized onions
1/4 of a small swede
½ teaspoon of smoked paprika
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ fresh nutmeg grated
300g/10oz Puy lentils
1 pint of strong beef stock
Knob of butter
100g/4oz crème fraîche To serve

Method for Puy Lentil Soup with Caramelised Onions

Slowly cut the bacon over a low heat so that it renders all of its fat. Meanwhile roughly chop 2 onions and the swede and add to the pan, with the spices. Add the stock and the puy lentils and simmer gently for about twenty five minutes until the lentils are cooked through.

Caramelise the remaining two onions by cooking very very slowly in the butter over a low heat. Add a generous grate of nutmeg. To serve put the soup into a bowl and add the onions on top and serve with crème fraîche.

In reality you can serve with soup with any lentils, but the puy lentils have an earthy flavour that goes really well with the sweetness of the caramelised onions. Puy lentils are the only lentil to be identified by the area in which they are grown the Le Puy area of France. One of the reasons they are great to cook with is the fact that they do not go to mush like the red or yellow lentils, they hold their shape well. In this case the Puy lentils are thick enough to hold the weight of the caramelised onions on the top of the soup. As I live in Spain we have a very similar lentil the Pardina lentil, it does not have the same marbling colour but it also holds its shape and we can’t get puy lentils.
Puy Lentil Soup with Caramelised Onions makes a satisfying supper or a lunch, it can be served with a crusty wholemeal roll but frankly it is satisfying enough as it is. Puy Lentil Soup with Caramelised Onions would also be fantastic I think with a thick chorizo sausage or a British Cumberland sausage though as yet I have to try it. However if I was making it with Chorizo I would omit the bacon and also the smoked paprika as chorizo has a lot of smoked paprika in it, Ii think the red fat would look fantastic in Puy Lentil Soup with Caramelised Onions.