French-inspired Lentil Soup

French-inspired lentil soup

Ingredients

1 cup lentils

2 small carrots

1 red pepper

1 small cooking onion

1 clove of garlic

1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste

4 strips of bacon

1 900 ml container of chicken stock

2-3 sprigs of thyme

1 bay leaf

10 grape tomatoes

Prep

Dice carrots, onion and red pepper. Mince garlic. Slice grape tomatoes into quarters. Cut bacon into small strips.

Cook 

Fry until toasty brown in a stock pot. Remove bacon from pot, leaving drippings. Reserve bacon. Add onion, carrots and pepper into pot, cook until softened. Stir in garlic and tomato paste. Continue to cook for another couple of minutes until tomato paste starts to brown. Deglaze with stock. Add lentils, thyme, and bay leaf. Simmer over low heat until lentils are cooked through, stirring infrequently, so as to not break up lentils.

Add cherry tomatoes and cook for another couple of minutes. Remove thyme stems and bay leaf. Garnish with bacon. Serve.