Pumpkin and Red Lentil Soup with Bacon

A creamy pumpkin soup is always as soothing as can be. But add some red lentils and bacon to it, and it turns into sheer heaven. It's such a comforting dish that fills you up with goodness and happiness.

This pumpkin and red lentil soup with bacon is inspired by my Red Lentil Soup with Chorizo which uses carrots instead of pumpkin, and chorizo instead of bacon. Of course, both soups can be tweaked to use up whatever ingredients you might have around.

With both soups, the meat has to be cooked and removed so that they do not get blitzed up when the soup needs pureeing. You can cook them completely separately, but I think that sauteeing the onion in the same pan they cooked soaked up all the amazing flavours.

You can also use roasted pumpkin for this delicious soup, like I used in my Roasted Pumpkin Soup, which has a lovely chilli kick and is full of Fall flavours.

Ingredients needed

• pumpkin - fresh pumpkin is the best for this recipe, it does not need to be precooked
• bacon - any kind would do
• onion
• red lentils - split red lentils cook a lot faster than green or brown lentils, so do not swap them
• vegetable oil
• salt and black pepper
• chicken stock - broth

Variations

Pumpkin can be swapped for sweet potatoes, butternut squash or any other squash - I find that the texture changes very little with these swaps.

Chicken stock works great, but you can also use vegetable stock or water, but that, of course, changes the taste of the soup.

I used regular onions, but red onions or shallots can be used too. As long as there is some spot of onion used, that's all good.

I used regular bacon chopped up in small pieces, but you can also use bacon lardons or streaky bacon, that's absolutely fine.

Step-by-step photos and instructions

• add the chopped bacon to a large pan and fry
• remove it from the pan, and set aside
• in the same pan, add the oil and chopped onion, and leave it to cook until it softens
• add the pumpkin and chicken stock and leave it to cook with the lid on until the pumpkin is soft
• add the red lentils, and leave it to cook again until the lentils are tender
• season with salt and pepper, and blitz the soup to a creamy texture
• garnish with the cooked bacon

Expert tips

Depending on how thin or thick you like the soup, you can adjust the amount of stock you use for this soup, it doesn't have the be my exact amounts.

The reason why I cook the pumpkin first and not at the same time with the lentils is because the lentils cook very quickly, and they thicken the soup too. It is best to cook any other vegetables first before adding the red lentils.

I haven't used any herbs for this soup, but dried or fresh sage would work well, as well as parsley or Italian herbs, it's totally up to you. You can also add a touch of Indian spices for a bit of a heat and a curried taste.

Other lentil recipes