Economical Eating -- Lentil Soup

I rediscovered lentil soup a year or two ago. As a young child I saw my mom doling it out to my dad -- heaping bowls of brown-green mush -- and thinking it looked like a number of unmentionable substances. Nay, nay, I would have none.

Somewhere down the line I ended up trying it and found it to be surprisingly delicious! This recipe by Martha is my favorite so far. Lentils are up there on the economical eating scale, so we Murrays will be having our fair share this winter. When it's cold, this soup will warm you to your core.  It's rustic and hearty. I add about six strips of cooked, crumbled bacon to this recipe, along with about 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease (add it when sauteeing the onions.) I also use an immersion blender, pulsing the soup just a few seconds to thicken it up.

So, on gray winter evenings around our dinner table we sit, hunched over our hot bowls of lentil soup pretending to be like the peasants of old, huddled around a fire and a big iron pot, braving the weather and hardship of winter.