Avent Ferry Lentils

I came up with this recipe the other day and it was fantastic! Who knew turnips, lentils and bacon could be so good! When I finished I knew something was missing, something sweet--so I added raisins which made the perfect balance of salty and sweet. I named it after a road near where we live in Raleigh.

This recipe meets a few criteria of mine:
1. It uses many local, seasonal ingredients from the Raleigh State Farmer's Market (it's May now).
2. It uses some of our bulk legumes (not joking, we have about 100 lbs of beans in storage right now. We have bean dishes about four times a week now. I am searching for many ways to prepare beans and might soon gain the title of the "bean queen".)
3. It uses really healthy ingredients like turnips, which are less starchy than potatoes and are powerful cancer fighters and lentils which are a good source of protein, iron, phosphorus and copper, and a very good source of dietary fiber, folate and manganese.

I want to stress the importance of soaking your lentils or other legumes in baking soda and water before cooking. We have discovered that the baking soda makes them so much easier to digest and virtually eliminates all gas associated with eating beans. Great news!

I used my new food processor for most of the chopping in this recipe. The carrot, onion and turnip were so finely chopped, we barely knew they were there. Since my children don't care for turnips, it worked out quite nicely that they didn't notice the turnips and just ate up their yummy lentils. Here is my recipe:

Avent Ferry Lentils

4 cups dried lentils
1 tsp baking soda

1/2-1 lb nitrate-free bacon cut into bite-sized pieces
1 onion chopped
2 ribs celery chopped
4 carrots peeled and chopped
2 large or 4 small turnips peeled and chopped
2-4 cloves of garlic minced
2 medium yellow squash quartered and sliced
1 cup raisins
1 quart chicken broth
mixture of chopped fresh herbs (I used parsley, thyme, oregano and chervil from my herb garden)
salt and pepper to taste

Soak lentils in warm water with baking soda for approximately 7 hours, drain, rinse and set aside.

In a large pot cook bacon for about 15 minutes so that it begins to get crispy, stirring occasionally, add onion, cook for a couple minutes, then add the celery, cook for another couple minutes. Add the carrots, turnips and garlic, cook for about 5 minutes. Add the squash, raisins, lentils and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Skim any foam that comes to the top. Cook until the lentils are tender, about an hour. Add the fresh herbs, salt and pepper to taste.