Lentil Soup with Sausage and Fennel
Makes 6 servings
Ingredients
1 ½ cup green or brown lentils, preferably French
1 tsp baking soda
7 oz Toulouse sausage, or other uncooked pork sausage, casings removed
Olive oil, as needed
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 medium bulb fennel, trimmed, cored, and diced (or substitute 4 celery stalks)
½ tsp fine sea salt
3 whole cloves
½ tsp dried thyme
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
Freshly ground black pepper
Crème fraîche or full-fat sour cream, for serving
Roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, for serving
Hot sauce, for serving (optional)
Directions
The day before you want to cook them, soak the lentils in enough cold water to cover by 2 inches mixed with the baking soda.
The next day, in a heavy-bottomed pot, cook the sausage over medium heat until browned, breaking it into bits with a wooden spoon as it cooks. (If the sausage meat is lean, add 2 teaspoons olive oil so it doesn’t stick.) Scoop out and set aside on a plate.
Add the onion, fennel, and salt to the pot and cook, stirring regularly, until softened, 4 to 5 minutes.
Drain and rinse the lentils. Add to the pot with the cloves and thyme. Add the stock, cover, and bring to a simmer. Cook until the lentils are cooked through, 35 to 40 minutes. If you want to give more body to the soup, mash roughly with a potato masher, or process briefly with an immersion blender. You want the soup to remain chunky.
Return the sausage to the pot and stir. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
Ladle into bowls. Add a spoonful of crème fraîche, black pepper, parsley, and hot sauce, if using.
Recipe from tastecooking.com
NOTE: I didn’t soak the lentils that long. I soaked mine about three hours, and they still cooked in 30 minutes.
I also didn’t have Toulouse sausages, so I substituted fresh Polish garlic kielbasa (as was suggested by the internet).
I used Better Than Bouillon, which I find to be extremely salty on its own, so I eliminated the additional salt and also made the bouillon on the weak side and the saltiness was fine.
I also tied the cloves up in a little bit of cloth to make them easier to fish out (which the recipe doesn’t even mention, but no one wants to bite down on a whole clove).
The CookingBites recipe challenge: lentils (any type, any form)
Makes 6 servings
Ingredients
1 ½ cup green or brown lentils, preferably French
1 tsp baking soda
7 oz Toulouse sausage, or other uncooked pork sausage, casings removed
Olive oil, as needed
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 medium bulb fennel, trimmed, cored, and diced (or substitute 4 celery stalks)
½ tsp fine sea salt
3 whole cloves
½ tsp dried thyme
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
Freshly ground black pepper
Crème fraîche or full-fat sour cream, for serving
Roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, for serving
Hot sauce, for serving (optional)
Directions
The day before you want to cook them, soak the lentils in enough cold water to cover by 2 inches mixed with the baking soda.
The next day, in a heavy-bottomed pot, cook the sausage over medium heat until browned, breaking it into bits with a wooden spoon as it cooks. (If the sausage meat is lean, add 2 teaspoons olive oil so it doesn’t stick.) Scoop out and set aside on a plate.
Add the onion, fennel, and salt to the pot and cook, stirring regularly, until softened, 4 to 5 minutes.
Drain and rinse the lentils. Add to the pot with the cloves and thyme. Add the stock, cover, and bring to a simmer. Cook until the lentils are cooked through, 35 to 40 minutes. If you want to give more body to the soup, mash roughly with a potato masher, or process briefly with an immersion blender. You want the soup to remain chunky.
Return the sausage to the pot and stir. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
Ladle into bowls. Add a spoonful of crème fraîche, black pepper, parsley, and hot sauce, if using.
Recipe from tastecooking.com
NOTE: I didn’t soak the lentils that long. I soaked mine about three hours, and they still cooked in 30 minutes.
I also didn’t have Toulouse sausages, so I substituted fresh Polish garlic kielbasa (as was suggested by the internet).
I used Better Than Bouillon, which I find to be extremely salty on its own, so I eliminated the additional salt and also made the bouillon on the weak side and the saltiness was fine.
I also tied the cloves up in a little bit of cloth to make them easier to fish out (which the recipe doesn’t even mention, but no one wants to bite down on a whole clove).
The CookingBites recipe challenge: lentils (any type, any form)
) to know that one of their benefits is they don’t need to soak for a long time, and that they cook quicker than beans. I saw that overnight soak and dug around a bit on the internet and couldn’t find anywhere else that said to soak them overnight, like a lot of people do with dried beans. 
