Recipe: Purée of Lentils with Smoked Sausage

Recipes title

Purée of Lentils with Smoked Sausage

Serving Size: 8
Preparation Time: 1:30

Ingredients

8 oz. bacon or ham fat—chopped
2 large onions—chopped

Dark Mirepoix:

4 stalks celery—chopped
2 cups leek white and light green parts—washed chopped
1 cup carrots—chopped
1/2 head garlic—peeled and chopped
1 cup tomato purée
2 qts white stock
1 lb lentils, soaked overnight in water
1 each smoked ham hocks—or smoked neck bones
1 lb kielbasa or frankfurters

Preparation

sauté the bacon or ham fat and brown it well. If it is not well browned it will turn an ugly white.
Peel and dice or chop the mirepoix vegetables and garlic.
sauté the mirepoix to brown it lightly. Add the tomato purée and cook a while longer. This soup needs the color from the tomatoes.
Add the liquid, then the lentils that have been picked over for stones and soaked overnight in water.
Bring to the boil, add the ham hock, smoked neck bones or whatever smoked goodies you have.
Cook until everything is soft. If it gets too thick, add stock or water. Remove the bones, and dice any meat or skin for a garnish.
purée.
Add the sliced smoked sausage of your choice, as abundantly as you like. Simmer a while.
Season to taste. Garnish. Garlic Croutons are very good with this but you have to hide them till the last minute, or people will mooch them.

nb. Before you work with the lentils, smell them to make sure there is not a musty odor, and check them for stones.

Notes: Lentils are penny for penny, your best buy for protein, and with a little meat in the soup are very sustaining, I add some tomato product to brighten the color. You don't have to purée this soup, you can serve it with some lentils intact. Just add only half the lentils, wait a half hour and add the rest and cook till tender. The ones you added first will "mush" by themselves. If this looks like I wrote it on top of the purée of pea recipe, you are getting the right idea. The technique and most ingredients are identical. I would tell my students,"Make it just like purée of peas, only add a little tomato product for color." Having taught them the first, I expected them to adapt to the second, to show understanding.