A lentil soup for every day.

Mary Monica Lentil soup.

She was my mother (of the title) and her cooking rocked.

This was, along with the cawl (Welsh soup) I've written about elsewhere and leek and potato soup, the soup my mother most often cooked. And I tend not to deviate from the original recipe so...

1 large onion, chopped - not too finely
six rashers of bacon -- however it comes, but not smoked: chopped into small pieces (use some sharp scissors -- that's how she taught me to snip bacon into pieces)
six fat carrots, peeled (I don't bother if they are organic) cut into generous chunks
six medium potatoes, peeled and cubed -- not too finely, now.
400 grams of red lentils.

You just fry off the bacon, add the onion, then everything else -adding a little sunflower oil if you need to (good bacon shouldn't give out water!). Use a good deep pan. Then just cover the mixture with water and add as much water in volume again. Bring to the boil, skim the froth that rises, turn it right down to simmer slowly and cover the pan lightly with a lid. Stir every now and then. Cook for about half an hour. The vegetables will soft, the onion virtually dissolved into the soup and will be creamy and wonderful. Check for salt and pepper. If you're vegetarian, just miss out the bacon. Sometimes, for an extra boost of flavour, I turn to my trusty Marigold bouillon powder. Go easy and add to taste. Sometimes, my mother added a little ground cumin to the soup and sometimes a dash of a curry powder blend: if you want to try, may I suggest Bolst's or Rajah?