foodie friday : copycat sausage and lentil soup

I have had a bunch of carrots and zucchini and lentils that needed to be used up so I found copycat recipes for Carrabba's sausage and lentil soup.  Soup is about the only way we enjoy italian sausage, and this soup was the one way I had heard Kyle say he liked lentils once upon a time.  

This was extremely easy to throw together (once Myles went down for his 4pm nap).  I remembered a recipe for a good crusty rustic bread that some friends shared with  me up in Louisville years ago.  I have never made it correctly, but I now have some bread making skills under my belt so I whipped the dough together during morning nap and baked it while I got the soup thrown together.  

I mostly followed this recipe, but used this for my spice measurements.  So my mash up of the two/adjustments for what I had is this:

Copycat Carrabba's Sausage and Lentil Soup

1.25 lb italian sausage (mild)
1 med onion chopped
2 carrots chopped
1 stalk celery chopped
1 med zucchini chopped
48 oz chicken broth
1 lg can (28oz) diced tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 - 2 C dried lentils
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried thyme
shredded parmesan to serve

Saute the sausage in your large pot until nice and brown, drain the fat and then throw everything in!  I did not add any extra water because I liked the consistency to be more like a stew at the end, but you can totally add water if you want to thin it down into a good soup, that is how all of the other recipes did it.  Let it reach boiling on high heat and then drop it down to med/low heat and cover.  Let simmer for at least an hour.

This had great flavor, I made it to get rid of my leftover lentils but I may actually start buying lentils more regularly to make this more.  Myles of course gobbled it up, and Kyle finally gave me a "that was good!" review.  So you know you have to make it now.  This makes about 4 qts of soup without being thinned down so definitely have friends over to share!