Sausage and Lentil Soup

Submitted by tammy dalton

"I found this recipe at The Joy of Soup website. It is very similar to Carrabba's Sausage and Lentil soup. It was so good I just had to share. I put the veggies all in the food processor and diced the fine. Everything was about the size of the lentil"

 

• Ready In: 1hr 20mins
• Ingredients: 16
• Serves: 8-10

ingredients

• 1 large carrot
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 large onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 lb hot Italian sausage
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 2 cups dried lentils
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3⁄4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1⁄2 teaspoon oregano
• 1⁄2 teaspoon thyme
• 1⁄2 teaspoon fennel seed
• 1 bay leaf

directions

1. Dice the first four ingredients and sauté them in a large pot with the oil. Sauté until tender.
2. Remove vegetables from the pan and add the Italian sausage, removed from the casing, to the pan. Brown then drain off fat.
3. Pour 8 cups for chicken broth, the vegetables back into the pot.
4. Add tomatoes and lentils.
5. Add remaining ingredients.
6. Simmer until the lentils are tender, 30-45 minutes.
7. Remove 1/3 of the soup and puree. then return it to the pot.
8. Correct the seasonings and remove bay leaf.

Reviews

[Bhujia]

I brought home a cup of the soup from Carrabbas to look over while eating and noticed that it had bacon in it, so I diced, cooked, drained and added a package of smoked bacon. I omitted extra salt and red pepper flakes because I used hot sausage and 1.5 cartons of chicken broth with salt and figured everyone could adjust theirs to taste. Everyone loved it! Also, I threw everything into the crockpot and let it cook on low for about 4 hours rather than cooking it on the stove top (I did brown and drain the sausage and bacon.) Will make this again and again, especially in the cold months.

 

[sdmacneil]

AWESOME! My husband liked it so much he's talking about bringing the recipe to work to give to the guys to take home to their wives (he works on a construction site) AND sending a copy to his mother! We love the Carabba's version, and this is very close. I used chicken sausage, because that is what I had in the freezer, but other than that, followed the recipe exactly. This one is definitely going to be a regular at our house!

 

[Chef shapeweaver]

I made this recipe on 10/14/12 for the " Fall Colors " Event in the Food Photo Forum and most importantly mine and my SO's dinner. Due to what was on hand a few changes were made to the recipe, I used a bean soup mix that contained pinto beans ( because of the pinto beans, the soup had to cook a bit longer).And since I'm a big whimp when it comes to heat ,so mild instead of hot sausage was used.And 2 14.5 ounce cans of diced tomatoes were used instead of the 28 ounce can ,1 contained basil,garlic, and oregano and the other had green peppers & onion. I didn't have fennel seeds,so the same amount of powdered fennel was used. I've never had Carraba's Soup,but I don't see how it could be better than this. Thanks for posting and, " Keep Smiling :) "

 

[IngridH]

Yummy! The only changes I made were to NOT puree part of the soup (I liked the texture the way it was; use sweet sausage instead of hot, and to double the chili flakes, oregano, thyme, and fennel seed. I just love it, and will definitely make it again. It's just a bit spicy, and the fennel seed really makes this taste like Italian sausage. A chunk of crusty bread on the side would make this a perfect dinner for a cool night.

 

[makeeyecontact]

Cooked and added the sausage separately so the vegetarians could eat too. Everyone loved it. Perfect balance of flavors, just the right amount of seasonings and BAM! the senses delight!