Or "There's Nothing in the House for Dinner Soup." That quite clearly explains this soup's origins. I have a surplus of green lentils sitting in my pantry, and Brian isn't a big lentil fan, so I try to make them for solo meals. I had planned on eating an apple and almond butter for dinner, but I ate that at 4pm and to no one's surprise, I was hungry again not long after that. In rummaging through my fridge and pantry, this soup was born.
Carmelized Onion Sausage Lentil Soup
Inspired by Mark Bittman's 7 Ways to Make Lentil Soup
3/4 - 1 lb crumbled sausage*
2 yellow onions, sliced into half moons.
1 c. french green lentils
1 bay leaf
1 tsp cumin
6-8 cups chicken stock**
Creme fraiche or sour cream -yes, I also had homemade creme fraiche in the house.
*I used a homemade pork sausage with garlic and herbs. Don't be impressed. It's ground pork mixed with garlic and herbs.
**6 cups will get you more of a stew, 8 cups will get you more of a soup. Go figure.
Saute the sausage in a large, heavy soup pot until browned and crispy. I found I needed to add a little canola oil to help the browning along. Remove the sausage and add a just enough water to scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan, then add the onions.These you can cook until they're golden brown, or like, if you have a baby who won't sleep and you constantly have to check on him, until they're very, very, very dark brown. We'll call them "charred." They were still delicious. When the onions are done to your liking, add the lentils, bay leaf, cumin, chicken stock and sausage. Simmer half an hour or so, until the lentils are soft but not falling apart. Top individual servings with creme fraiche or sour cream, or at the very least, a tiny bit of lemon juice. You want something acidic to break through the dark heavy flavors of the onions and sausage. My soup looked like sludge, so I'm sparing you a picture, but it was incredibly delicious sludge.
Now I have to find recipes to use the rest of the lentils in the pantry...
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