A couple of weeks ago, I tried my hand at lentil soup and absolutely loved it. In fact, if you haven’t tried that recipe, please do so immediately! I’ve been thinking of ways I can tweak the recipe and low and behold, I found one of my favorite home cooks has a great lentil soup recipe. Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Pearlman has a great recipe for lentil soup with sausage, chard and garlic. I’ve adapted the recipe a bit to include chicken sausage and kale instead of the chard (simply because I prefer chicken sausage and don’t feel like running out to buy swiss chard). I am planning to make this in the next week or so, so more pictures to come!

Lentil Chicken Sausage Soup adapted via Smitten Kitchen

Serves 6

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3 links of chicken sausage
• 2 celery stalks, sliced or diced
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into half-moons or diced
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced (reserve half for later in recipe)
• Kosher salt
• 1 cup brown lentils
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 6 cups water
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 3 to 4 cups shredded kale

1. Heat 1/4 cup olive oil (enough to coat bottom of pot) in a large pot on medium heat. When hot, add the sausage, breaking it up with a wooden spoon until it starts to brown, about five minutes.
2. Add the onion, celery, carrots, first two garlic cloves, and a pinch of salt. Cook with the sausage until the vegetables soften, another 5 minutes.
3. Add the lentils, bay leaves, tomatoes, water (6 cups is, conveniently, 2 empty 28-ounce cans, so you can get any tomato pulp you missed), more salt and black pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer and allow to cook until the lentils are tender, about 40 minutes.
4. When the lentils are cooked, add the kale and cook until the leaves are tender, just a few minutes more. Discard the bay leaves.

via Smitten Kitchen http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2013/01/lentil-soup-with-sausage-chard-and-garlic/