Sausage and Lentil Soup

As the cooler fall weather sets in, nothing sounds better to me than a bowl of hot, hearty soup. Last year, I stuck to just a couple and rotated them throughout those colder months, but this fall, I have decided to diversify and try some new recipes.

I don’t know about you, but I love those Hillshire Farms sausages that you can buy in the deli meat section. So when I came across a recipe for a sausage soup, I couldn’t resist. As I usually do, I looked up several different recipes and combined my favorite parts together to form this recipe.

*Interesting tidbit: Sausage and Lentil Soup is a traditional Hungarian dish that is often served for New Year’s Eve. It is considered a “lucky” dish because lentils symbolize wealth (they are shaped like small coins).

Ingredients

1 lb. lentils

1 ½ large yellow onions

2 leeks, white and light green parts only

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp fresh thyme, minced

1 tsp ground cumin

5 stalks celery, diced

4 large carrots, diced

12 cups chicken broth

¼ cup tomato paste

1 pound Polska Kielbasa sausage

2 tbsp. red wine vinegar

Olive oil

Parmesan cheese, for serving

1. Begin by heating olive oil in a large pot on the stove over medium heat.

2. While the oil is heating, dice the onions, leeks, celery and carrots into small-medium pieces. Set the celery and carrots aside in a bowl and add the onions, leeks and garlic to the pot along with thyme, cumin, salt and pepper. Sauté for 20 minutes, covered.

3. Add the celery and carrots, and sauté for another 10 minutes, covered.

4. Add the chicken stock, tomato paste and lentils. Cover and bring to a boil.

5. Once the pot reaches a rolling boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for one hour.

6. While the soup is simmering, prepare the sausage. Cut the sausage in half lengthwise and place it on your cutting board flat-side-down. Then cut it again in half lengthwise and dice into small-medium pieces. You have essentially quartered the sausage, and I think this makes it easier to eat.

7. After the soup has simmered for one hour, add the sausage and red wine vinegar, and simmer until heated through.

8. Ladle into bowls and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

(I also like to buy a fresh loaf of bread to slice and dip into the soup. If I have bread leftover and it doesn’t taste as fresh the next day, I like to spread some butter on it and place it under my oven’s broiler to toast. I owe credit to my roommate for this idea).