Lentil Stew
Updated Sept. 11, 2025
- Total Time
- About 10 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
Ingredients
- coarse-chopped slab bacon
- olive oil
- chopped onion
- carrot
- celery
- lentils
- stock
- Parsley
Preparation
- Step 1
Cook coarse-chopped slab bacon in olive oil until done; add chopped onion, carrot and celery, and cook for a few minutes. Add lentils and any stock to cover; bring to a boil, then reduce heat and slowly simmer until lentils are tender. Garnish: Parsley.
Private Notes
Advertisement
Comments
I substituted lots of olive oil for the bacon, problem went away. Loosing the bacon lost some flavor so added reconstituted dry mushrooms and 2 Tbsp good tomato paste to up the umami and everything seems balanced without the bacon fat.
How much is a slab of bacon (a pound? a half pound?)? How many cups of lentils (one? two?)? How many cups of stock per cup of lentils? This is a very Hemingway-esque list of ingredients and directions!
I’m not sure what lentils Mr Bittman uses to get this cooked in 10 minutes, but my French green lentils took more like 40 minutes. In that time a lot of the flavor of the vegetables & meat had faded away, so it then needed more spicing up. In the end I thought it pretty good, but not special. Next time I would probably remove the vegetables & meat from the pot prior to cooking the lentils, then add them near the end. Additions: ham, parsnip, jalapeño, pimenton, & at the end some sriracha.
Used red lentils, chicken stock and instead of bacon, chunked up some leftover ham to add to the soup. Added a generous splash of Pinot Grigio at the end of cooking. Also garnished the soup with some croutons on top. This soup was quick and easy, comforting on a rainy night.
Used marinated sirloin tips instead
This is very good basic recipe which is so close to what I've done for years except no bacon - occasionally I will use chopped pancetta or prosciutto but none of these are actually necessary, the olive oil (evoo is what I use). One could add some smoked sausage if one chooses but, again, it's a choice, not a necessity.