Lentil soup (linzensoep)

500 grams lentils
100 grams bacon or salted pork
2 slices whole wheat bread
2 slices white bread
100 ml milk
200 grams lean ground beef
1 small leek
2 large onions
6 carrots
3 potatoes
2 parsley with roots salt, pepper and nutmeg
bread crumbs
20 grams margarine
1 bay leaf mace
1/2 chili pepper

1. Rinse the lentils and wash them thoroughly. Put the bay leaf, chili pepper and mace in a piece of linen cloth and tie it shut for a bouquet garni. Cube the bacon/pork and fry it slowly in a large pan. Cube the whole wheat bread, slice the carrots and leek into thin rings, peel and dice the potatoes. Cut off, but keep the top of the parsley, wash the roots thoroughly and add bread, carrots, potatoes and parsley roots to the frying bacon.
2. Sautee the vegetables with the bacon and add the lentils and 200 ml slated water. Drop in the bouquet garni and cook the mix for 1 hour. Cut off the crusts of the white bread and soak the remainder in milk. Squeeze out the milk and mix the bread through the ground beef, together with some salt, pepper and nutmeg. Divide the ground beef into quarter-sized balls and roll those through the (fine) bread crumbs. In a frying pan, heat the margarine and fry the ground beef balls. Take them out and drain them on absorbent paper. Finely chop the parsley.
3. Pour the soup through a strainer/sieve over a large bowl. Take out the bouquet garni. Put the sieve with the vegetables over the pan and with a spatula, a large spoon or a round wooden roller strain the vegetables. Add the stock from the bowl to the pureed vegetables and bring to a boil, add salt and pepper to taste and just before serving add the chopped parsley and ground beef balls. Slice the onions into rings and sautee them in the margarine used for the ground beef. Pour the soup into bowls and add the fried onion rings. Serve with a crisp baguette or whole wheat toast.