My mom’s chipotle lentil soup is a comfort recipe that I’ve been making for well over a decade. I was once asked me what my “Rattatouille dish” (aka, any dish that brings back childhood memories by simply tasting it) and this is my answer. I used to bring this stuff in a Thermos all the time and the soup was liked by Chafic at Pita Kabob so much that he put it on the menu. It’s the only item on that menu that was created by someone NOT on the kitchen staff.
Here’s the recipe:
4 slices of bacon, chopped
1 cup of lentils
3 cups of water
1/2 Onion; caramelized and lightly salted with black truffle sea salt (Mom obviously didn’t use truffle salt.)
1 Roma tomato, diced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 russet potato, diced
3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced (Adjust this to desired level of heat!)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/8 cup of Vegeta seasoning (Mom used Knorr Suiza)
Heat bacon to render fat and remove bacon bit. Caramelize onions in bacon fat for the base with your choice of salt; I use black truffle sea salt. Add lentils and toss around in onions and oil so that all grains are coated. Add water, garlic, chipotle peppers and bullion/seasoning; bring to a boil. Once at a boil, add diced tomato and bell peppers, bring heat down to very low and simmer for 35-45 mins. Serve with bread or tortillas. (At Pita Kabob, we serve it with pita bread.)
If you feel the soup is too heavy, substitute bacon and bacon fat with olive oil. This also makes the soup vegetarian.
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