My dutch oven runneth over (Sausage and Lentil Soup)
04Maybe not quite…but almost. Clearly I should have used my big 8 qt. stockpot, but I just love my dutch oven so much I didn’t even think twice about how enough soup for an army would fit into it.
Talk about a soup that eats like a meal! Despite that this soup’s only accompaniment was some garlic and herb bread, my husband could barely finish half his (admittedly large) bowl because he got stuffed to the gills.
I was originally going to make Ina’s lentil sausage soup, but I didn’t have a few things (leeks, green lentils) and had some other things (regular brown lentils, a potato). I saw a lentil soup with sausage and potato recipe in my Joy of Cooking book, so the recipe below is essentially a mixture of those two recipes.
I ended up freezing about a quart of this soup and hopefully we can manage to make it through the rest this week for lunch, etc.
Lentil Sausage Soup
Serves: an army 🙂
3 Tbsp. olive oil
3 medium yellow onions, diced
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. kosher salt
ground pepper to taste
2 thyme sprigs
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
4 stalks celery, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup tomato paste
12 cups chicken broth
1 lb. lentils, rinsed and picked over
2 small or medium russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 lb. kielbasa or other smoked sausage, sliced in half-rounds
2 Tbsp. red wine
Grated grana padano/parmesan for serving
In a large stockpot or dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions, cumin, salt, pepper and thyme and cook until the onions are translucent, about 10-15 minutes.
Add the carrots, celery and garlic and saute for about 8 more minutes. Stir around the tomato paste to cook it off for a couple minutes.
Pour in the chicken broth and the lentils. Cover the pot and bring the soup to a boil. Remove the lid and simmer for about 25-30 minutes, until the lentils are just tender.
Add the cubed potato and simmer for 5 minutes before adding the sausage and red wine. Simmer an additional 5 minutes or so until potatoes are cooked and sausage is heated through. Pluck out the woody thyme sprigs.
Ladle into bowls and top with grana padano or parmesan cheese.
OMG- made this last night- you’re not joking about feeding an army. My 6’9″ boyfriend who can really house food was full after two bowls. This was probably the best soup I’ve ever made at home. High five on this awesome recipe, I will be making this again, when my leftovers run out in 2013. Thanks!!!
I’ll be doing a recipe review of this for sure on my blog- I’ll let you know when I do!!!
Glad you liked it!
Just had this for dinner– second the love! I doubled the veggies and used a little less kielbasa. Very tasty (and enjoyed having a glass of wine with dinner since I had to open a bottle.)
Great, glad you liked it, Hillary!