Lentil-Sausage Soup

(makes 10 servings)

What You Need!

½ pound sweet Italian sausage (you can use hot if you prefer; make your own decisions – but make sure it’s out of the casings, okay?)
1 large onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
16 ounces dry lentils, rinsed (pick through them first, or you might get some gravel and that’s hard on your teefs)
1 cup shredded carrots
8 cups of water (I used 7 ¼ cups and ¼ cup of Riesling, because wine in soup or stew is yum, deal with it)
2 14.5 ounce cans low-sodium chicken broth (or a 32-ounce carton, but, you know, you do you)
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 bay leaves
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon dried basil
Salt, to taste


What To Do With What You Need!

1. Heat up a 4-quart pot on your stove (Dutch oven – hurr hurr, soup kettle, etc.) on medium-high heat, and when it’s hot toss the sausage in and cook it until it’s all nicely browned. You shouldn’t need any oil, okay? It’s pork, it makes its own. So there.

2. Add the onion, celery and chopped garlic to the sausage; let it cook until the onion’s translucent.

3. Add in the carrots, lentils, spices, herbs, broth, wine and water; stir that pot like you’re a pundit on one of the Sunday chat shows.

4. Bring it to a boil, then drop the heat to a simmer.

5. Cover it and let it cook, 2 ½ hours(!) or until the lentils are tender. It might take a bit longer.


6. EAT, BUBBELEH! EAT! Serve it with biscuits, crackers, bread and butter, I’m not going to dictate to you, you have your own life, I swear what’s the world coming to . . . and don’t eat the bay leaves, okay? Throw those out, they’ve done their job and they taste nasty.