Instant Pot Lentil & Bacon Soup
Mum’s been making this soup as long as I can remember. Back when I was a kid, it would be made in the pressure cooker. Then we got a big stockpot pan that would sit bubbling away on the cooker for hours. Now we have a lovely new gadget called the Instant Pot and the soup has been reborn as Instant Pot Lentil and Bacon Soup.
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Cooking with the Instant Pot
I’m an Instant Pot fan but we did have a misfire the first time we made this soup. I read up on how to make soup in it and there’s was a clear winner – use the soup setting. We soaked the lentils overnight and off we went. The result did not pass the Mum test and mostly went in the bin.
So this time I looked at how Mum had always cooked the dish – long and low. I decided that using the slow cooker setting would be ideal. We didn’t soak the lentils and just made it like she used to in the stockpot but used the slow cooker setting instead. The result was pretty much spot on although next time we decided we would soak the lentils overnight as this will probably cut down the cooking time (hard lentils are not fun).
Recipe tips
Mum based this recipe on her grandmother’s cookbook which is a fair age. In it, they use a ham hock and there’s no reason you couldn’t do that if you want. We prefer bacon because it is easier and more cost-effective. Mum always trims the fat off the bacon and cuts it up – again, a preference thing.
We don’t put a stock pot in the mix as there’s in a lot of the soups we make. If you wanted a stronger flavour, there’s no doubt you could use one, even a herb flavour pot. But we kept it the way she had always made it because it is her recipe.
Instant Pot Lentil & Bacon Soup
Classic homemade soup but using the Instant Pot!
Ingredients
- 2 cups red lentils
- 1 onion
- 250 g swede
- 475 g potato
- 175 g carrots
- 4 rashers bacon
- 2 tsp mixed herbs
- 3 pints water
- 1 pinch onion salt
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Peel and cut all veg into chunks then put in the blender to reduce to small pieces (this saves cooking time)
- Mix in water, lentils, herbs and salt
- Cut the fat from the bacon, cut it into pieces and add to the mix
- Set the Instant Pot to 'slow cooker' mode on high and set for two hours, stirring occasionally
- Depending on how well cooked you like the vegetables and lentils, you may need up to another 2 hours to completely cook the soup
