Red Lentil Soup with Sausage and Roasted Red Peppers

This month’s meat farm share brought us a bag full of wonderful pork products. Pork shoulder, chops, bacon, ground pork, and 2 pounds of pork sausage. When the end of the of the month hits, with a new shipment of meat days away, it becomes a bit of a game to clear the meat from the freezer so that there’s room for the next delivery. Tough life, right?!  Looking for a little inspiration for all this pork, I stopped by the Closet Kitchen and as usual, Kevin had just the thing I was looking for.

I make a lot of soups in the Whole Kitchen, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. And by Sunday afternoon, the fridge is typically stuffed to the gills with storage containers full of soups and steel cut oats for breakfast and lunches for the week ahead. If I were to open a cafe, it would definitely be a cozy joint for homemade breakfast and soups – they’re what I most love to create in my kitchen.

I tend to favor the highly flavored brothy soups like the Thai Red Curry Soup I posted last week. Mark prefers a heartier soup, and probably would be thrilled if I made chili every week. Unfortunately for Mark, chili isn’t a great love of mine. This soup splits the difference, with a beautifully flavored broth, thanks to the red pepper flakes and aromatics, and a chunky, hearty texture to please the husband.

Italian Sausage and Red Lentil Soup
Serves 8
Adapted from Closet Cooking

1 pound pork sausage (Italian or breakfast sausage)
1 tsp oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 stalk celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
chili pepper flakes to taste
1 cup white wine
1 1/3 cup red lentils
4 cups homemade chicken stock
1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 cups water
2 roasted red peppers, skins removed, seeded and sliced into bite sized pieces
2 bay leaves
1 T oregano
1 T red wine vinegar
1 parmigiano reggiano rind (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup parsley (chopped)

1. Cook the sausage in a large pot, then drain the fat, scoop out the sausage and set aside.
2. Wipe out the pot, return to heat and add 1tsp oil. Add the onions, carrot and celery and and cook until the vegetables soften, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, oregano and chili pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about a minute.
3. Add the white wine, sausage, lentils, chicken stock, water, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, bay leaves and parmigiano reggiano rind and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer until the lentils are tender about 30-45 minutes.
5. Season with salt and pepper, remove from heat and mix in the parsley and red wine vinegar

302 cal per bowl, 70 cal from fat, 7.7g fat, 35mg cholesterol, 830mg sodium, 310mg potassium, 36g carbs, 7g fiber, 9g sugar, 18.5g protein