Instant Pot Lentil and Bacon Soup. Classic comfort food from Laurie Colwin's "More Home Cooking", sped up with my pressure cooker. Bacon, onions, garlic, lentils, and some diced tomatoes, pressure cooked for 15 minutes, make for a cozy, comforting soup. (Just like reading Mrs. Colwin's books.) This recipe will warm you up on a cold day.
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In all your life, you will be hard-pressed to find something as simple, soothing, and consoling as lentil soup. You can take things out of it or put things into it. It can be fancy or plain, and it will never let you down.
- Laurie Colwin
I'm reading my way through Laurie Colwin's classic food writing, and it feels like a warm hug. Her relaxed, no-fuss approach to cooking is what I aspire to in the kitchen. She shows the beauty in the art of simple food.
I can get into my own head sometimes, searching for exotic and elaborate recipes. Mrs. Colwin's writing reminds me to take a step back, breathe, and focus on straightforward food, cooked properly, and served to friends.
The Wonderful Lentil Soup chapter in More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen inspired this recipe - specifically, the section where she talks about "the unhealthy way" to make it - with diced bacon. I'll admit it - I'm a sucker for lentils and pork.
Ingredients and Substitutions
I'm keeping this recipe simple, following the example set by Mrs. Colwin. But, if you want to get more elaborate, I've got a few ideas…
- Lentils: Brown lentils are the ones I get at the store (just labeled "lentils", nothing else.) You can also use fancy, regional lentils for an extra-special soup: French Lentils du Puy, Umbrian Lentils, Beluga Lentils…they all work the same in this recipe. Red (split) lentils are an exception because they cook so quickly. Cut the pressure cooking time back to 5 minutes at high pressure if you use red split lentils, and even then, expect a porridge-like texture.
- Substitute broth for water: For extra-rich lentils, substitute homemade chicken broth or homemade vegetable broth. (Or, if you must, use store-bought broth. It will be fine, but reduce the 2 teaspoons of fine sea salt at the end to ½ teaspoon.
- Spice it up: The point of this recipe is to be simple comfort food, so salt and pepper alone make a great soup. But, if you need a little more zing, add a tablespoon of paprika (especially smoked Spanish paprika), a tablespoon of chili powder, or ¼ teaspoon of red pepper flakes with the onions and garlic.
- More aromatics: Instead of just onions and garlic, you can use the Cajun "holy trinity" by adding a diced green bell pepper and diced rib of celery with the onion. Or, do a French mirepoix and add a diced carrot and diced rib of celery.
- A Splash of Vinegar: If you find that lentils taste a little flat, adding a little acid at the end will brighten them up. Stir in a teaspoon of red wine vinegar, cider vinegar, lemon juice, or tabasco (for some extra spice kick) at the same time as the salt.
- Make it vegetarian/vegan: Skip the bacon, and if you can, use vegetable broth instead of water to add some extra body to the soup.
- Save some bacon: Only add half the bacon back into the pot for pressure cooking. Sprinkle the remaining bacon over the bowls when serving for a crispy topping.
How to make Instant Pot Lentil and Bacon Soup in Pictures
Crisp the bacon and render the fat
Add the diced bacon to a cold Instant Pot, set the pot to Sauté, and sauté until the bacon is crispy and the fat in the bacon is rendered. Scoop the bacon out with a slotted spoon.
Sauté the onion and garlic
Add the onions and garlic to the bacon fat, sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of salt, and sauté until softened.
Everything in the pot
Add the lentils, water, crisped bacon, and a can of diced tomatoes to the pot.
Pressure Cook for 15 minutes with a Natural Release
Lock the lid and cook at high pressure for 15 minutes, followed by a Natural Pressure Release.
Season and serve
Stir in 1 ½ teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper. Enjoy!
Scaling
This recipe scales up and down easily - cut everything in half if you don't need as much soup, or need to fit in a 3-quart or 4-quart pressure cooker. Scaling up runs into space issues; you need an 8-quart pressure cooker to double this recipe.
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Instant Pot Lentil and Bacon Soup Recipe
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Description
Instant Pot Lentil and Bacon Soup. Classic comfort food from Laurie Colwin's "More Home Cooking", sped up with my pressure cooker. Bacon, onions, garlic, lentils, and some diced tomatoes, pressure cooked for 12 minutes, make for a cozy, comforting soup.
Ingredients
- 4 ounces diced bacon
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 pound brown lentils, rinsed (2 ¼ cups)
- 4 cups water
- 15-ounce can of diced tomatoes
- 1½ teaspoons fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Instructions
- Crisp the bacon and render the fat: Spread the bacon out in the bottom of a cold Instant Pot or other pressure cooker. Set the pot to Sauté mode - high (medium-high heat for a stovetop PC). Cook the bacon, stirring occasionally, until all the fat is rendered and the bacon is crisp, about 5 minutes. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon, leaving as much fat behind as possible. Set the bacon on a plate lined with paper towels to drain.
- Sauté the aromatics in the bacon fat: Add the onion and garlic, and sprinkle with the ½ teaspoon of salt. Sauté the onions until they soften, about 5 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot occasionally with a flat-edged wooden spoon to loosen any stuck bits of bacon.
- Everything in the pot: Add the lentils and reserved bacon, then stir them into the onions. Pour in 4 cups of water, scrape the bottom of the pot with the flat-edged wooden spoon one last time to make sure nothing is sticking, then stir in the diced tomatoes just enough to mix them in. (If they sink to the bottom of the pot they might cause a burn warning.)
- Pressure cook for 15 minutes with a Natural Release: Lock the lid on the pot. Pressure cook on high pressure for 15 minutes in an Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker, or for 12 minutes in a stovetop PC. (Use Manual, Pressure Cook, or Pressure Cook - Custom mode in an Instant Pot.) When the cooking time is over, let the pressure come down naturally, about 20 minutes. (If you are in a hurry, you can quickly release any remaining pressure after 20 minutes.
- Season, and serve: Unlock the lid, tilting it away from you to avoid the hot steam. Stir in 1½ teaspoons of fine sea salt and 1 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper. Serve and enjoy.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
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Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup of soup
- Calories: 276
- Sugar: 3.2 g
- Sodium: 483.4 mg
- Fat: 6.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 40.3 g
- Fiber: 6.8 g
- Protein: 16.3 g
- Cholesterol: 9.4 mg
Tips and Tricks
- No pressure cooker? No worries. Increase the water to 6 cups and simmer for 1 hour.
- Extra-Thick Soup: If you want this to be more like a lentil stew, scoop out about a cup of the lentils, puree it (I use an immersion blender right in 2-cup measuring cup), then stir the puree back into the soup.
- Simmer if you can: The other way to thicken the soup is, instead of pureeing, simmer the soup with the lid off for 15 minutes. After pressure cooking and removing the lid, set your instant pot to Sauté mode - Low (or use medium-low heat on the stovetop), and simmer the soup for 15 minutes, stirring often and scraping the bottom of the pot to prevent the lentils from sticking.
What to serve with Lentil and Bacon Soup
Mrs. Colwin says to serve "With a loaf of bread, a salad, and some cheese, and something or other for dessert". I can't say it better, though, as you can see in the pictures, I like to serve it with a scoop of white rice.
Storage
Lentil and bacon soup will last in the refrigerator for a few days and can be frozen for up to 6 months. Lentils always freeze well, so I'm happy to have leftovers. I freeze them in 2-cup containers for lunch-sized portions.
What do you think?
Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
Related Posts
- Instant Pot Lentil and Hambone Soup
- Pressure Cooker French Lentils
- Pressure Cooker Bean Mix Soup
- Instant Pot Lentil Curry
- Lentil stew, Umbrian style
- Instant Pot Ethiopian Red Lentils (Misir Wat)
- Pressure Cooker Umbrian Lentils and Sausage
If you're looking for something else, here is my index of Instant Pot and Pressure Cooker Recipes.
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Elena says
Made last night - lunch for this week! Thanks for a solid, tasty recipe.
Sherrie says
I made this soup today in my instant pot, it was easy to make and tasted delicious.
Mike Vrobel says
Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Lelis says
Loved it. I didn’t add the tomatoes but used carrots instead. I had to add a little bit more water after the pressure cooking step and I didn’t need to thicken the soup due to that. Certainly I will make it again.
Mike Vrobel says
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Steven says
Thanks for the recipe. I too am a dad who cooks every night. I love my instant pot! I didnt have fresh garlic so I switched with 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder. I also used 12oz bacon instead of 4. It came out perfect! I will be making this again.
Mike Vrobel says
Glad you enjoyed it!
alex says
Very similar to the Hungarian lentil soup I grew up with and so glad to have an Instant Pot version I can now rely on because soaking beans is a bigger chore than I care to deal with. Also, sauteing bacon in anything but an Instant Pot means grease spatters to clean up later, even if using a screen. The way Instant Pots are designed this is minimized, and the onions become beautifully translucent while deglazing the insert of that magnificent bacon fond.
The major difference in the stovetop recipe is that it involved making a roux of the onions and bacon fat and this step can be skipped entirely. It's not like the flour adds anything except thickening if you're making a large batch with lots of fluid and simmering it for hours.
The only difference in my family recipe is no tomatoes, and the seasonings are two tablespoons of sweet paprika and a couple of bay leaves. And at the end, it gets a splash of vinegar and each serving gets a dollop of sour cream. You can also add sausage, which I might have done had there been any on hand.
I didn't get out my immersion blender for this one, instead just stirring it very vigorously with a spatula and the result was thick and creamy as it should be.
I'm often hesitant to use the Instant Pot on familiar stovetop recipes but this one helped give me more confidence in that regard. And even though I'm supposed to abstain from bacon, I'm going to give myself a treat a little more often now that I can make this with considerably less time and effort.
Mike Vrobel says
Thanks!
Lee Ann Roberts says
I made this for dinner tonight; we haven't eaten yet, but the bite I had after I took it out of the IP was tasty.
I was short on brown lentils, so I added 1/2 cup of red lentils, which were mushy enough that I didn't think I needed to puree anything.
I also tossed in a bay leaf, a few sprigs of fresh thyme, and a couple of teaspoons of Better than Bouillon vegetable stock concentrate.
As Ted said in the above comment, mine came out pretty dry. I will add a little water to the soup when I reheat it.
B says
This is a great recipe, Mike. Thanks!
Elizabeth says
I made this in the Instant Pot tonight. Delicious!!!
Mike V says
Glad you enjoyed it!
Ted says
I made this this morning and it's pretty tasty, and definitely going into the regular soup rotation. I did note a couple of changes for next time though. 1. My lentils weren't quite cooked through, so a couple of more minutes will be added. 2. The soup came out very dry, enough so that I added a cup of water to the cup of lentils when I pureed them. That worked well. 3. Although it gets away from the simplicity of the soup, it's almost like a blank canvas that you can work with as far as extra spices and other additions. I'm thinking some diced carrot will go nicely.
I use a 5 quart Instant Pot because mostly I'm just cooking for my wife and I, and I've yet to find a recipe that didn't work in the 5 quart instead of the 6 quart.
Thanks for the great recipes and ideas.