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.
Jennifer Martin
Am I forgetting or did there use to be a bread recipe with this one too?