Description
Nourishing and delicious, this Sausage and Lentil Soup is made with simple pantry ingredient and infused with a little Italian charm.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 lb. sweet italian sausage (if links, casing removed)
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 medium carrots, diced
- 1 medium red pepper, seeded and diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt, (more to taste)
- 1 tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained (see note)
- 1-1/2 cups green or brown lentils, picked over and rinsed
- 6 cups chicken broth/water, more as desired
- 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
Instructions
- Heat a large heavy-bottomed pot with olive oil. Add sausage and cook until no longer pink, about 8 minutes. If the sausage has rendered a lot of fat (more than a tablespoon), shut off the heat, push the sausage to one side and drain it. Turn back on the heat to medium.
- Add the onion, carrots, and pepper to the sausage and cook until beginning to soften, about 6-8 minutes. The sausage may begin to brown and stick to the pan (which is ok, it means more flavor).
- Add the garlic, salt, and Italian seasoning and cook for 2 minutes, until the garlic is fragrant. Add the drained tomatoes, lentils, and broth and stir.
- Bring the soup up to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the lentils are tender and just starting to show signs of breaking apart about 20-30 minutes.
- Add the red wine vinegar and season to taste, adding black pepper and additional salt as desired.
Notes
Draining the canned tomatoes ensures you are only using the actual diced tomatoes and not any of the accompanying sauce. This prevents the broth from feeling more like a tomato sauce, which is not the intention of this recipe. You can save the drained tomato liquid for another purpose.
I use Diamond Crystal coarse kosher salt in my recipes, if you use Morton's kosher salt or fine salt you will likely need to decrease the amount of salt called for