Sausage and Lentil Soup...Farmer Style

Winter comfort food at its best, this soup is hearty, filling, feeds an army, and is perfect on a chilly winter’s day. Plus, make it all in a big ol’ pot for easy prep and cleanup! 

With the holidays past us and us all stuffed with stuffing, a break from the traditional fare of the holiday sideboard is surely welcomed. I love to make a pot of this soup and eat it for a couple days, freezing some for another day or sharing with my friends and family…trust me, for they’ll come running to your table for a bowl of this delicacy.

The texture and mélange of flavors lends this dish towards perfection as winter’s best soup. Root veggies, lentils, cabbage, and warm seasonings make this an ideal mainstay to fight the winter blues or ward off the cold. Cornbread, crackers, a spicy cheese, or simply some sour cream are the condiments de rigueur with this soup. I’m a firm believer that condiments make a meal, this one of no exception.

Take tasty, simple, and even local ingredients and you’ll be thrilled with the result. Find your favorite local sausage and use it - this Farmer loves M & T’s smoked mild links or Stripling’s from Cordele. With much glee, I’m also so thrilled that Conecuh sausage is now readily available at grocery stores across the South! It is the best sausage you can get at a grocery store in my humble opinion. Local cheese, such as M & T’s hot pepper is ideal as it melts ever so smoothly into the warm soup. Find the local stuff and use it my friends!  If you prep all this ahead of time, this soup takes hardly any time at all…another added bonus! From this Farmer’s kitchen to yours, enjoy!

Sausage and Lentil Soup 

• 1 red onion, diced
• ½ a head of cabbage, sliced into strips
• 5 stalks of celery chopped with some leaves
• 1 bag of lentils (Publix brand doesn’t require soaking…I’d use them or another that doesn’t require soaking)
• 6 cups of water
• Tablespoon of minced garlic
• 1 package of sliced, smoked sausage… about a pound
• ½ a stick of butter
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 4 chicken bouillon cubes
• Dash of Nature’s Seasoning
• Dash of Lawry’s Season Salt
• Dash of cumin
• Salt and cracked black pepper to taste

 

Slice sausage into small rounds and bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 or until edges are crispy.

In a heated pan or heavy bottomed Dutch oven, add olive oil and butter to melt.

Add chopped onion and sauté until translucent and beginning to brown. Stirring often and adding cumin and other seasoning as well.

Add garlic once onion shows some caramelization.

Sauté garlic for a minute, stirring the seasoning, onions, and garlic together. Add lentils and celery.

Stir lentils and celery with onion mixture and add bouillon cubes and water. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, adding cabbage after 20 minutes are up.
Cover and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Add sausage and some drippings and serve!