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This simple, French-style green lentil broth is made with classic and affordable ingredients.

It’s very much a ‘fridge and cupboard clearer’ recipe – one of those ones that can be made with the carrots found at the back of the fridge shelf, and the half a pack of lentils found under the pasta in the cupboard.

The flavours come from some fresh herbs – bay leaves, rosemary and thyme add fragrance and depth, along with a spoonful of Dijon mustard for some peppery warmth.

With the green lentils, this one pot dish is filling on its own, but it’s at its absolute one pot best when served with some nice crusty bread.

The Ingredients

Onion, garlic, carrots, kale – the vegetables. This broth is versatile and other vegetables can be used in addition to these. Tender stem broccoli and leeks in particular would be delicious.
Bacon – getting smoked bacon is absolutely key. You want all of that smoky flavour through the broth.
Green lentils– use dried green lentils. They take about 40 minutes to cook through and have a lovely texture.
Stock – you can either use homemade stock or just a litre of water and a good quality vegetable stock cube.
Bay leaves, rosemary, thyme – fresh herbs are so much better than dried here if you can get them.
Dijon mustard– if you can’t get hold of Dijon mustard, you can use English mustard – the taste is more powerful, though, so just use half a teaspoon. Don’t switch for whole grain mustard, the grains will be unpleasant in the broth.

Green Lentil Broth

A classic French style green lentil broth with carrots, kale and smoked bacon.

Harriet Young

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 40

Total Time 45

Serving Size people

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 rashers of smoked bacon
2 onions
200 grams carrots cut into bite size pieces
4 cloves garlic
250 grams green lentils
1 litre vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
1 sprig of rosemary
1 sprig of thyme
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
100 grams kale roughly chopped

US Customary – Metric

Instructions

Peel and chop the onions. Chop the bacon into 1cm pieces.
Put the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onions and bacon and cook for 2-3 minutes until the onion is starting to soften.
Peel and finely chop the garlic. Add the garlic and the carrots to the saucepan. Cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Add the lentils and stock, followed by the bay leaves, rosemary, thyme and Dijon mustard. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 30-35 minutes.
Check the consistency of the broth – if the lentils have absorbed a lot of the water and there isn’t much liquid left, add 200-500ml more water to achieve a broth consistency. Add the kale and cook for another 5 minutes until it is al dente.