Soup -- Rustic Lentil Soup (French Style)
Submitted by dvdlee on August 27, 2004 at 10:13 am

DESCRIPTION
Soup -- Rustic Lentil Soup (French Style)

SUMMARY
Yield 0 File under Family / Ethnic / Regional

INSTRUCTIONS
This is going to be another essay as I discuss lentil soup! I started this process when I stumbled until the French "Lentils du Puy" in Whole Foods (only $1 a pound, bulk!) and was interested in 'how they were different' and what to make with them.

I looked at a lot of recipes and gathered information on the culture, background, varieties of lentils, etc. and wanted to organize this into some kind of rational order.

So, this 'recipe' will have 3 sections: #1 will be about the background and how French lentil soup developed from the peasants in rural France. #2 will be the recipe I actually used to make my soup (plus options/variations) and #3 will be a listing of the differnt kinds of lentils and the taste/texture differences between them.

I looked at lots of sources including Laurie Colwin's essey on Lentil Soup, the "Paris Cookbook" by Patricia Wells, Jacques Peppin, Cooks Illustrated, and my 'standards' (Joy, NY Times, Bittman Cook Everything, etc.)

Lentils Soup (at least this version) is NOT a fancy soup. It's a definitive 'rustic' dish -- a hearty rough soup that is great for family and informal company, but would never have appeared on a fancy Paris restaurant's menu!

I'd read about flexibility and how you adapt a recipe to the ingredients at hand -- and after making the recipe listed below I can imagine all the countless alterations and adjustments (by necessity or choice) that could be made and still produce a great lentil soup.

The foundation concept is that of a fairly poor family who must use every scrap of food (either through thrift or necessity) and uses that as a springboard for making something tasty.

So, picture poor Collette on her way home from a hard days work in the fields or sewing in a garret for the nobility -- she has at home some onion, garlic, and has just gotten a few carrots from the stand. She (of course) has lentils that she has purchased for a few sous earlier in the year. She is lucky that there is still a few pieces of bacon or fatback from the pig they got from Collette father on his farm -- so she has everything she needs.

If its been a bad week, there are no carrots or bacon, but maybe she has a leek and a tomato instead. In a good week, she has some chicken broth leftover from the Sunday dinner.

So, while the recipe below calls for a variety of ingredients -- you don't have to have all of them -- or use them all. Feel free to substitue and explore other options to still produce a great, lowfat nutritious (and fast!) soup.

However, even poor Collette will have fresh herbs to use in her soup -- either growing wild in by the side of the road (those lucky French!) or in a pot on her windowsill. Fresh herbs are always better!! If you don't grow some of your own herbs -- I'd start some before I even refreshed my sourdough starter!!! They are easy to grow (they're weeds after all), cheap and make a difference! (You can even have a small bay tree and use fresh bay leaves -- wonderful...!)

In her little kitchen she cooks the bacon to get some fat to begin to cook the things that need to cook the longest -- the onions and carrots. Then she adds the lentils and tomato, covers the pot and moves the pot so only 1/2 of it is on the fire and go out to gather her herbs. After adding the herbs and a bit of salt she then adds the water with a bit of broth saved from the boiled chicken earlier in the week. She cooks the soup until the lentils are done (which is only 30 minutes or so) and then takes a spoon and mashes some of the soup up so its thicker and seems more substantial. Adding a little final bit of herbs she is ready to serve dinner to her family with a loaf of good pain she got from the village baker. (Hey, a working woman can't bake every day!!! LOL)

4-5 slices bacon (cut in very small pieces)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrots (peeled!)
1/4 cup dried leeks (from KA) or maybe 1/2 or so cup fresh (clean & chopped)
2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
1 can (14.5 oz) tomatoes (drained -- chop or use diced)
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (or very scant 1/2 teaspoon dried)
1 cup Lentils du Puy (or regular ones), washed, picked over
1 teaspoon salt
Ground pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine or dry vermouth
6 cups liquid (water or any blend of chicken stock and water -- but no more than 50% stock)
1 & 1/2 teaspoons sherry or balsamic vinegar (optional)
2-3 Tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

Fry bacon (or salt pork) in a heavy stockpot or large saucepan over medium heat until the fat is rendered out and the bacon is very crispy. Don't skimp on the cooking here! The bacon should be very very crisp.

Add onion & carrots, continue to cook on medium, stirring occasionally until the onion is beginning to soften - 3 minutes or so.

Add garlic and cook for another 30 seconds or until you can begin to smell the garlic.

Add tomatoes, bay leaf, lentils, salt & thyme. Grind some pepper into the mixture. Stir together well. Reduce heat to medium low to low, cover the pot and slowly cook for 10 minutes (stirring once & recovering pan). The veggies should be soft by the end of this "sweating" time and the lentils will be dark.

Uncover, increase heat to high and add wine and stir. Then add the water & chicken broth. bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and partially cover the pot. Simmer until lentils are tender (30-40 minutes or more, depending on the age of the lentils - which you have no way of knowing!).

Remove bay leaves (please!). Put 3 cups (in stages) into a blender and puree until smooth. (You can use a food mill, chinois, or use a immersion blender. If you use the immersion blender, remove the 3 cups from the rest of the soup before blending.)

Return pureed soup to the pot, add optional vinegar if you want, then parsley. Blend and cook for a final 5 minutes. Serve with crusty bread!

Some people like to add (or pass at the table) a vial of really good Extra Virgin Olive Oil to use as a fillip on the soup. This is time to break out that "really good bottle" of olive oil if you choose to do this!

Just wanted to talk about what's going on technique-wise in this recipe so you can understand how to make changes, adapt to your available ingredients, etc.

1. Lentils need no presoaking or any kind of preparation (except for the washing & picking out 'bad' beans, any stones, etc. All lentils cook very quickly!

2. You first want to render any fat from the meat you are using as flavoring OR you can just saute the veggies in olive oil. Then you bring out the sweetness of the Alliums (onion, leek, garlic) with a saute. You can use all onion, all leek -- or just a bit a garlic.

3. Add and "sweat" the veggies beans and long-cooking herbs. (Thanks to CI for this basic 'trick'.) Sweating the veggies brings out and intensifies the flavors of the veggies. By first doing a bit of cooking with very little liquid present the juices are extracted and concentrated. You can add any root veggie in small amounts to accompany the lentils. Tomatoes are traditional (since they were easily grown) in the Provence area of France. You can use parsnips, celery root, or other mild root veggie here also -- or a sweet pepper maybe!

4. Add the water and cook gently until everything is done and tender. You puree some of the soup to give it body and thickness, but this is an optional step. If you want a brothy soup -- you're done! The Lentils de Puy will not break down into a soft mush -- no matter how long they are cooked. Many lentils break down into mush... so the soups 'thickness' can be controlled by the kind of lentils you use.

5. Finish with final herbs and a bit of acid. Many people find that a tiny bit of acid 'freshens' the soup and gives it a final lift and dimension of flavor. You can add (in very very small quantities!) vinegar, wine, or a citrus juice (lemon usually). This is optional and up to the cook and diners! But the acid needs a brief cooking to blend into the soup -- so usually this is done before serving.

Note: About pepper. There is more than black pepper in this world. Green peppercorns have a different taste to me which is delicious. Green peppercorns are used in a lot of French cooking and I think they are very good in this soup. The French and Europeans also favor blends of the different kind of peppercorns (black, green, white, red). If you order any spices -- try a blend or some of the different kinds of peppercorns for a way to add some different flavors to your arsenal. They are not very expensive (if you're going to have an order anyway) and usually can be purchases in very small amounts for 'trial' or freshness.
I hope this will help you discover you own favorite lentil soup recipe! Feel free to experiment. I could taste that is is a soup that will be good in a huge number of variations.

Thanks to Cooks Illustrated for bringing all of this information about lentils into a great summary!

You can use only one kind -- or a blend if you want to! Be creative and have some fun....

---------

Lentils come in various sizes and colors, and the differences in flavor and texture are surprisingly distinct. Tasters were asked to evaluate five kinds of lentils (made into a soup), rating them in terms of taste, texture, and appearance.

Lentils du Puy These lentils are smaller than the more common brown and green varieties. While they take their name from the city of Puy in central France, they are also grown in North America and Italy. Dark olive green, almost black, in color, with mottling, these lentils were praised for their "rich, earthy, complex flavor" and "firm yet tender texture."

Black Lentils Like lentils du Puy, black lentils are slightly smaller than the standard brown lentils. They have a deep black hue that tasters likened to the color of caviar. In fact, some markets refer to them as beluga lentils. Tasters liked their "robust, earthy flavor" and "ability to hold their shape while remaining tender." A few tasters found the color of the soup made with them "too dark and muddy."

Brown Lentils These larger lentils are the most common choice in the market and are a uniform drab brown. Tasters commented on their "mild yet light and earthy flavor." Some found their texture "creamy," while others complained that they were "chalky." But everyone agreed that they held their shape and were tender inside.

Green Lentils Another larger lentil, this variety is the same size as the brown lentil and is greenish-brown in color. Although tasters accepted the "mild flavor" of these lentils and liked the way they "retain their shape while being tender," most complained that the soup made from them was "a bit anemic looking."

Red Lentils These small orange-red lentils "completely disintegrate when cooked." They made a soup that looked "anemic."