Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup

It's starting to warm up and I am realizing how many soup recipes I have left to go. I am cramming one in before swing is here in full force. For the lentil and sweet potato soup, I ordered Spanish Pardina lentils from La Tienda (www.tienda.com). 

This is a great site for southwestern food products. I also threw in a sample of “grilling sausages” for Matt that included about four different kinds of sausage and chorizo. We haven't tried any yet but I am loving finding these new sources for different ideas and flavors that aren't the same old same old. 

I started the recipe off by rendering the fat off of lardons of applewood smoked bacon. I could probably just stop there and have dinner, it smells so good!

I then cooked chopped leeks, carrots, and onions in the bacon fat with yellow curry powder for seasoning.

In the meantime, I cooked the diced sweet potatoes until just tender.

After the vegetables were cooked, I added chicken broth and the lentils and cooked until the lentils were done. After stirring in the sweet potatoes, I crisped the bacon lardons for garnish and also added cilantro leaves to the finished soup.

I thought the soup was pretty good and it was definitely healthy (minus the bacon anyway). Matt on the other hand wasn't so crazy about it. I thought the lentils were really different. They are a lot smaller than a normal bean and the the curry powder in the seasoning was really good. I also am getting to be a big fan of leeks in almost any dish. The only thing that didn't really go to me was the addition of the sweet potatoes. I think the soup would have been great without that step. All in all, this was a pretty easy recipe, which was nice, but I'm not sure I would make it again exactly as it is written.