Beans and Greens, Good for Your Heart

When I was vegetarian, Progresso Lentil Soup was one of my dietary staples. It wasn't that expensive (as far as filling processed food meals go), and it was tasty, mostly due to its high salt content. I've tried making lentil soup a few times before, and it never matched up to the Progresso, probably because if I couldn't actually bring myself to put that much salt in the pot as I cooked it. It's like how cooking scrambled eggs was for me for a long time - it wasn't until Joytold me a few scrambled eggs used a quarter stick of butter to taste the way I liked that I got brave enough to use it all. Yikes.

Still, salt is a different animal than butter (which makes everything better), and I still hesitate to go crazy with it. Going back to Joyyielded a great idea to spruce up my soup: bacon. Bacon makes everything better (like butter)! I actually had some leftover bacon in my fridge from the incident, so I chopped it up and threw it in my soup. An hour later, I was slurping up wonderously salty, smoky, tasty lentil soup, and I didn't even have to put much salt in myself. I was a little worried that I forgot to rinse my lentils, but I don't think any rocks or weird grit got through. The recipe yielded something like eight monstrous bowls of soup, and given the cost of the materials, it's way cheaper (and possibly better) than the Progresso of lore.

The lovely spinach on top came from Z's garden, which is growing spinach faster than we can eat it. I'm going to have to do something with it soon before it all dies or gets eaten by insects.

I wonder if the bacon in my soup negates the truthfulness of my title. Hrm.