h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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Tut tut Tufty. food hygeniene --> food hygiene

Aw nuts. Put it down to lack of sleep.

I have never made soup myself but I do make stews and I use a masher designed for mashed potato to break up the bigger chunks.

If I haven't got or don't want any meat I just put in more of the other ingredients, but you can't really have Lentil and Bacon soup without the bacon can you?

How cheap is very cheap to make ? I know you can't say exact money prices as it quickly goes out of date, but compared to tinned soup how much is it. e.g. Is it half the price of tinned soup and a bargain or twice the price but so much tastier.
Today, a tin of the market leader in the UK is 78p, my supermarket own brand is 52p. Lentil flavour is not available in the very cheap value brands for 19p or in the dried packet soups.

Where would I get Fresh Rosemary from. Is there an alternative for this ingredient if I can't find it.

You didn't hear this from me, but...

A lot of offices etc use Rosemary in borders etc, as it stays green, and is hardy enough to withstand cold weather. Remember to wash it thoroughly before you use any.

I've corrected the spelling of hygiene, thanks.

I'll add a little more about the cost.

As far as rosemary goes, I've never tried it with any other herbs but I imagine sage or thyme would work well. Unfortuantely I don't think rosemary is really the sort of herb you can just grow in a little pot on the windowsill.

Re: Rosemary. It wouldn't do well on an inside windowsill, but will grow fine in a window box, or a pot on an outdoor windowsill. (just secure it in case of windy weather) Lots of herbs do very well in confined conditions and Rosemary is very hardy.

damn you lot - now I've got that ghastly Marmalade song on my mind.

"Love goes where my Rosemary goes..."

Edison Lighthouse

Please somebody post here tommrrow.... to remind me that this is what I'm going* to cook tommorrow night for dinner

Righty ho - So please would someone else post here to remind me?

I'll post here, to remind you, in the morning, for you, to post here, later in the day, to remind me, to make it... and if you can understand that can you translate it for me?

Only if you promise to keep this as a PR thread.

Hey, we're international, we can keep posting reminders to post reminders until it's tomorrow for 2legs...

Oh dear, thanks for the correction, Icy. I see it was around in March 1970. I must have been busy swotting for my O levels. Although, of course, in those days, it would have been very embarrassing not to have known who it was sung by.

I made lentil and bacon soup on Monday of this week. It was brilliant, although it seemed a bit odd, pureeing the bits of bacon. They made tiny white dots in the soup, under close scrutiny.

I didn't follow the recipe in the entry exactly, though, so I can't pass comment on it. Didn't use lentils, for a start, as originally intended, but found some old dried peas. And sweet potatoes aren't available much in the shops here, so I used the ubiquitous celeriac.

Cumin seeds would have been a good idea - it would probably have improved the digestiblity. But I'm not sure my husband likes them.

I cooked it... well, sort of
I had two problems... not having necesarily got the right ingrediants in, and also my inability to follow a recipie correctly...
Plus, I had a few things Iwanted to use up...

I did onion (1 medium white onion, and 1 small red onion).
Garlic (three cloves).
Potato (didn't have any sweet potato).
Carrots.
Cumin (ground not seeds as I don't have any cumin seeds).

I used some gammon steak (which I wanted to use up, instead of bacon).

Idid*use red split lentles

Chicken stock instead of veg (don't seem to have any veg stock in).

I also decided.... to add a couple of things, ; garum mucarla (stirred in about ten mins before it were cooked), and some fresh corianda (which needed to be used soon).

I remembered the rosemary (though it was dry), and added fresh ground black pepper.

Oh, and I put in some fresh ginger.

Ididn't blend it smooth as I don't have that capibility, but I cut most the ingreidants pretty small ...

and Though I think my version strayed very close to being a curry rather than a soup I must try harder to follow the recipie next time

It was delish though, had it with some of the rosemary poppy seed and onion bread I m made a couple days back, and I've enough left over for tommorrow

I was wondering, if people still felt that this entry needed a little more bulk, that all these alternative versions could be mentioned. It would show off the flexibility of the basic recipe.

Just a thought.

I'm not sure... maybe that could be an idea...
I'm pretty* sure the way I did it, if I'd have skipped the gammon entirely, and put a chilli in (which I very* nearly did), then I would have ended up with something not entirely unlike vegetable Daal (Dharl) The cumin, with fresh corianda, and the garum mucarla and fresh root ginger, and garlic gave it a very 'Indian'-esk flavour, although it wasn't 'hot', more just a bit spicey... Actually I think I may start living off daal again see if I can get one of those massive 20 KG bags of red split lentils from the Indian supermarket over the other side of town

Entry: Lentil and Bacon Soup - A79140521
Author: Elentari - U202814


I personally don't think it needs expanding with variations, but the Edited version might have this PR thread attached, if Elentari and the sub-editor agree.

The link the MMF's Winter Spicy version is shorter. A60769704
(btw I make that soup really often)

Sounds tasty

A couple of points/questions:

Ingredients:

Shouldn't the measurements be consistent,ie stock is imperial (metric) but lentils is metric (imperial)?

"carrots (peeled and cut into slices)" -> carrots (peeled and sliced)?

What does "chopped and sliced" mean?

Surely the garlic should either be peeled and chopped into small pieces (finely diced) or crushed in a press (btw 2legs, one of the advantages of a press is that one doesn't need to peel the cloves and touch the raw garlic at all & it's a lot quicker than 30 seconds )

Method:

I know one should read all of the instructions first but it still bugs me when recipes say "meanwhile..."

Shouldn't the first bit of instruction 4 be instruction 1, ie 1. make the stock?

In number 5, shouldn't I be adding slices of carrot rather than pieces? (Indeed, there is no need to refer to chunks of potato or slices of carrot in the method because the ingredients list has already told one how these ingredients should have been prepared.)

I hope to try this at the weekend and I'm sure I will enjoy

Good work, Elentari