🍲 Lentil + Bacon Soup

Hey Soup Enthusiast,

Everything is going to plan and with so much coming up over the next few weeks I am excited to announce this weeks soup is featured in our first short video! Scroll bellow the recipe and let me know what you think.

🍲 Today's soup: Lentil + Bacon Soup

Take a look at this delicious lentil and bacon soup, a cheap and easy soup to warm you up on a cold day. With a subtle taste from the bacon and a tang from the yoghurt this tasty soup is perfect to satisfy your hunger.

Here is how I would cook it in the future.

📝 Ingredients: Serves 6

• Olive oil

• 2 Rashers of bacon chopped

• 1 Large onion

• 1 Large carrot

• 6oz Mushrooms

• 6oz Orange lentils (Rinsed and drained)

• 2 Pint of chicken stock

• 1 & Half teaspoons ground coriander

• Salt and pepper

• 6 Tablespoons of low fat natural yoghert

• Chives to garnish

Recipe 

1. Chop the the bacon, onions and carrot and sauté for 5 minutes.

2. Add the lentils, mushrooms, stock and coriander.

3. Season well and bring to a boil.

4. Simmer for 40 minutes until the lentils soften.

5. Stir in the yoghurt.

6. Serve with a garnish of chives

Make sure to check out my first short form video!

Note 💡 - Combine yogurt with a small amount of warm (not hot) soup in a bowl to bring it up to temperature before adding it to the entire soup. This helps prevent curdling.

🌾 Ingredient of the week: Lentils

I have chosen lentils as the ingredient of the week as they added the substance to the soup. I challenge you use lentils in your cooking this week. If you make a soup, sauce or soup-based meal, with the ingredient of the week, you could have the chance of featuring in our next Community Showcase! 

Fact - Similar to barley lentils originated in the Middle East and can be considered a protein and a vegetable, which gives foodservice providers such as in schools and healthcare flexibility in meeting menu regulations.

👩‍🍳 Today's community showcase 

Take a look at this Broccoli and Stilton soup made by one of the Soup & Sauce community members last week.

1. Hit reply and add a picture of your soup, sauce or soup-based meal.

2. Add your insight such as a recipe or tip for the community.

3. Send us your email!

Want a shoutout? Type "Use my name [Your Name]".

🌍 Beyond the ladle: Soup news highlights

Better images for the Soup & Sauce newsletter

Just before making this weeks soup, my sister helped me realise I could use her camera stand for my camera which would allow me to take brighter pictures without sacrificing image quality to hand shake.

I then was talking with a family friend who is a photography pro and I discovered that the camera lens I am using would produce a darker picture than my smaller lens. I learnt a lot about the lens size and the effects it has on the image and camera settings so next week, I hope to have a lighter picture with a more clear image. If this works I want to shift my attention to composition (placement of the soup when taking a picture) and soup presentation.

Short form video

My _{first short video} went as expected. I could have done a lot better but, I have learnt a lot. I now have learnt what times in the cooking prosses it would be best to film so I have less video to cut out. This also helps me avoid capturing random noises such as the chanting for food from hungry mouths at the table.

While editing the video I struggled to find software that I was easily able to understand. Luckily my sister has some editing software for a UNI course. This has saved us from having to watch the video with a watermark on the image.

I am learning a lot about video editing and the recording proses, next week I hope the video will have improved a lot in video and sound quality.

Christmas challenge

If you received out last email you will know about the exciting Christmas challenge we are running to raise money and awareness for Fare Share, the UK's top food redistribution charity. If you want to get involved please take a look at the poster bellow. Here is the email for further information and the fund raiser if you are interested or want to get involved!

General improvements

You may not see much difference yet but we need to add the ingredients before stirring the pot. If you have any suggestions, I would be delighted to hear them. 👍

🚀 Your turn to stir the pot 

Our previous question we asked you was, what's your go to herb in leek soup? Here is what one of our Facebook members said.

What's your favorite type of lentil? Hit reply and let's stir the pot together! Your insights might just spark the next big flavour in our community. 

Your soup journey awaits,
Sean
Soup & Sauce

🍜 P.S. Soup hack alert! 

Slowly bring yoghurt to temperature to avoid curdling 😉