A Hot Bowl of Spicy Lentil Soup with Buttered Bread
It’s time to ease up.
It’s time have a cup of tea. It’s time to play with the cat until he scratches you. It’s time to sit on the couch and stare at the wall a bit. It’s time to stand in the kitchen and eat Ritz crackers and chug orange juice.
It’s time to make a giant pot of soup… and sorta use a recipe… but not really use a recipe.
It’s just time to ease up just a bit….
Tomorrow we can finish shopping, plan big Christmas dinners, finish knitting mittens, and start wrapping presents. For now let’s just ease.
This Spicy Chicken Sausage and Lentil Soup is a hearty winter soup. It was made for your heart and for your soul. It is a healer of all things. But!
There’s all sorts of goodness you could make on your plan to ease up just a bit.
Take in the scenery. Take in the soup!
a. Bright orange Carrot Apple Ginger Soup. Sweet and spicy and so so healthy!
b. Kale and Sweet Potato Soup. You’re the picture of health. No biggie.
c. There’s Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup, all creamed up with blended raw cashews.
d. Ok… I’m a soup fiend. Would you believe me if I told you that this Vegan Cream of Mushroom Soup is the best soup I’ve ever made? It’s major. It’s bonkers. It’s veganly beefy.
e. Roasted Garlic Soup I want to bathe in. It feels like old romance.
Spicy Chicken Sausage and Lentil Soup
makes a big pot of soup. serves 8
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound spicy chicken sausage, uncased
1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
3 celery stalks, finely diced
2 carrots, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons dried ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
2 cups uncooked French lentils, rinsed
8 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
parmesan cheese, olive oil, and bread to serve
in a large saucepan over medium heat, warm olive oil. Add the uncased chicken sausage and cook, breaking up with a spatula as it cooks. Sausage should finish cooking in small chunks. Remove from the pan.
Add a touch more olive oil if necessary. Add onions, celery, and carrots. Cook until the onions are transluscent, about 5 to seven minutes. Stir occasionally. Add the garlic, cumin, and chili flakes, and cook for one minute more.
Add the sausage back to the pan. Stir to incorporate. Add the lentils and chicken stock. Reduce the heat to low and simmer the soup, uncovered, until the lentils are tender, about 45 minutes.
Serve soup with a generous sprinkling of parmesan cheese, a drizzle of olive oil, and good crusty bread. Soup will last, in an airtight container in the fridge, for up to 5 days. Soup also freezes well.






101 Comments Add A Comment
Too much chicken, not enough lentils and chilli.
But i am a chilli addicted vegetarian, so what would i know?
I am going to have to make a variation of this.
You don’t have to use any chicken. My dad has made his family lentil soup recipe for 30 years and has never used meat. :)
Carrot Apple Ginger Soup. Sweet and spicy and so so healthy! <– every time I see the pic of that soup, I want it!
And the fact that you think the vegan 'shroom soup is the best ever soup, period…speaks volumes. I need to try it!
Wow you have been cooking up some soups! They all look so delicious I can’t just pick one recipe to try!
This sounds amazing! I live alone, and love making soups in the wintertime to have as dinner all week!
Do you use uncooked chicken sausages for this? I buy those pre-cooked Al Fresco brand chicken sausages sometimes, and am wondering how they’d work out.
It’s all about the Ritz Crackers and a real coke while I read Marie Claire while standing over the sink.
But I could also see it being all about this Lentil Soup. Anything that comes with buttered bread is a sure winner in my book!
I know what you mean, I call this time of year ‘crackers’, where I come home all burnt out and can’t think about anything and just stand in the kitchen eating crackers straight from the box. If I don’t have something healthy to grab and reheat quickly, crackers is all I’ll eat. Lucky for me, I just made a huge pot of spicy lentil and kale soup to use up a truckload of kale I had sitting in my fridge. So hearty and good!
Hi, Joy, thanks a lot for your posts, they´re just awesome!! Here in Spain Lentil soup is a traditional meal that takes very common in every home, but we do not add chicken, we add a “chorizo” (spicy sausage). Love your cinnamon rolls recipe!!
Yeah, I really need to take a moment and just have a big bowl of soup right now before I get too caught up in the holiday madness!
Oh Joy, I love you. And I have a new-found love for lentils.
To cut costs and go easier on all our bodies I’ve started doing at least one meatless meal a week. Lentils have been well-received {and that by 3 grown men! shocking!}.
Now if only I could find good sausage here in Kampala….
Sausage with lentils is one of the best combinations on earth. And the perfect winter warmer in preparation for the onslaught of Christmas :-)
I make the same amazing soup weekly, except that I never use chicken stock as it tends to offset the other flavors rather than enhance anything. I eat my soup with basmati.
Think I’ll save myself a few pennies next week and make this. I’ve got homemade chicken stock in the freezer just sitting there. :)
whoa…lentils (not my favorite) and sausage (my favorite). it’s like dog/cat love. hang on…*passes out*
Saranac Rootbeer…Ritz (at least a sleeve)…it’s like my own 6-course tasting menu.
Wow….that looks delicious
Joy, you are *so* good at what you do!!!
Yes. YES. Amazing, I am making soup today!
Eating a bowl of lentils at this very moment. Which actually doesn’t sound as heartwarmingly delightful as it is. And oh, it is. Joy, we’re so psychically connected in the unvierse right now. Fo’ sheezy.
This soup is absolutely wonderful!I can’t wait to try :)
I’m kind of addicted to lentil soup, love this!
soup with bread and butter is what winter’s all about!
This soup looks amazing! Right now I’m about to wake my three littles up for school…gonna try the pb and banana milkshake/smoothie on them. What kind of blender do you have? Would you recommend it? I’m shopping around!
I have fallen in love with lentil soup. Not so sure about the addition of the chili though. Can’t do spicy, but definitely have to have the buttered bread!
Great post, Joy!
Earthy and lush in color…you KNOW that’s good for the body. Add those regimented, uniform grates of parmesan that slowly and lusciously melt into the soup and congratulations, you’ve made it good for the soul. Yummy!
I want to put this in my mouth, like immediately.
Oh weird, I just arrived home yesterday for a month and my mom had a huge vat of sausage lentil soup on the stove ready to go. We have so much leftover its all I’ve been eating since, without complaint- it’s SO delicious!
You’re so right! This is high-stress time around my house. Totally time to ease up. Perfect time for a warm throw-it-all-in soup. Thanks for reminding me to slow down and smell the “soup”!
I love your idea to ease up and take a breather. Just yesterday evening I was in my kitchen eating Ritz and chugging some juice directly from the bottle. I will try your lentil soup this evening.
Oooh, I want to try all those Vegan Cream soups!!!!
Unfortunately I just can’t get into soup. It’s a texture thing. Brothy soups aren’t so bad and maybe the texture of the lentils would help, but I’m not sure I’m brave enough to try! I am jealous of your love for soups though because they look so warm and comforting. You live in California, you have no idea how badly I need warm and comforting in Wisconsin!
your lovely post wants me to eat soup. :-) my mom makes the meanest russian borscht i can think of and i already had a big bowl full of it today but your lentil soup… hmmm, delish… and the mushroom soup… and… and… i suppose i’m a soup friend, too. ;-)
All of these look like a perfect fit for winter. Warm, cozy, and good for the soul.
lentil soup is an absolute winter favorite of mine!
Oh a bunch of those sound so good! And I frequently make something kinda with a recipe, but not really. It allows creativity. :)
Joy, you are a beautiful and talented mind reader. I LOVE lentil soup and have been eating way too many cans of the Progresso version. However, I hate how high it is in sodium and wanted to try making it myself. Next thing I know, you post a recipe for lentil soup. You are a God-send!
I have been eating soup lately like it’s the reason for the season. And lentil soup is one of my favorites right now. Delicious!
I’m such a soup fiend too! Chicken sausage is a great idea. We eat lentils a lot so it’s time to try a new variation.
Yum. And how did I miss that roasted garlic soup?! I had a version of this soup at this crazy place in NYC that was so cheap and had a menu so extensive I ate there three times in a row when I was only in the city a few days. It was just that good. I can’t wait to conjure the memory with this soup!
this is exactly what i need right now. thank you!
Yay! I’ve been looking for a good lentil soup recipe. I may leave out the sausage, though.
Those all look wonderful! That carrot ginger soup might come to fruition here tonight! Thanks for the, as always, wonderful recipes!
You read my mind! Just yesterday I thought to myself, “I need to find a good lentil recipe,” and here you are sharing one. And it’s perfect, because having the spicy sausage in it will make my husband like it too!
ME WANT SOoOOOUUUUUPPPPPP
Sounds like a deliciously tasty and hearty soup. I appreciate that you built in two ways for readers to cut the spiciness if desired – either buy omitting the red pepper flakes, or using mild sausages. I laughed out loud at your “eat ritz crackers and chug orange juice” bit. We definitely are guilty of indulging in that kind of snacking pattern!
The vegan cream of mushroom would definitely be my first choice but the lentil one looks good too. Heck they all look good!
No easing up for me though. I’ve got a final exam tomorrow then I fly home. I have to study and be all packed and ready to go. I’ll ease up once I get back to Calgary….well probably not, who am I kidding?
How perfect that this post arrived on a cold, rainy day. Now … which soup to pick to make first???
No way! I made lentil and chorizo soup for dinner last night! It was delicious and perfect for the season.
YUM this sounds really good!
Yes! Soup! I love it! I am going to make some soup!
After reading this post I got lost in all your different soup recipes for about 20 minutes. Yum! They all look so good. I LOVE soup. I am definitely gonna have to try out some of your recipes soon.
So glad I came across your blog from a fellow foodie, this looks fantastic! You’ve got yourself a new follower! XO Jessica @ Cajunlicious