Get out a nice big pot, or a Dutch Oven (if you're lucky enough to have received a nice big blue one as a wedding present, like we were). Dutch ovens just hold the heat SO well, and everything just cooks so nice and evenly in them.
Also get out a frying pan, and drizzle a little olive oil in the bottom. About a tablespoon should do it. In the frying pan, brown up somewhere between 1 and 2 pounds of ground mild Italian sausage. It just depends how meaty you like yours. I personally like mine meaty so I did two full pounds, but if you prefer a more delicate soup rather than something so chili-like in consistency, just do one.
There's my ground sausage browning away. Lucky sausage, you get to be in soup!
While that's browning away, grab a large green zucchini and a sweet onion (Vidalia if you can get it). Chop them up into nice even little pieces. I have a fun kitchen gadget that you can use to chop up veggies, but you could do it the old fashioned way with a knife as well. While you're chopping, put your Dutch oven or soup pot on the stove on medium heat, and drizzle two or three tablespoons olive oil in the bottom, along with about 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper. Toss in the chopped up onion and zucchini, along with one minced clove of garlic, and stir everything together. Let it simmer on medium (make sure it doesn't burn) while you do the next step.
See that zucchini and onion? It's smelling sweet and just a teeny bit garlicky, too. YUM.
Next, chop up two good sized carrots along with two or three stalks of nice fresh celery. Chop them up into nice tiny pieces. I did these separate because my awesome vegetable chopper was no match for the dense carrots and stringy celery. Toss those in the Dutch oven or soup pot once they're done. Now it's time to add some fun spices! Hooray! Go to your spice rack and grab your parsley, your thyme, your oregano, your basil, and your red pepper flakes. I started with about 1 teaspoon of everything except for the thyme - I used just a couple sprinkles of that. You can really just add each seasoning to taste until it starts smelling delicious. I added a little extra parsley and basil, but you can do whatever you like. Stir in the spices with the veggies and stir around until well combined. If it seems too dense and sticky, you can add a couple drizzles of olive oil to loosen things up. That's totally okay.
Once this is done, grab your nicely browned ground sausage from the pan, drain off the fat, and combine the meat with the veggies in the Dutch oven. Stir everything together nicely, and add two 14.5 ounce cans of diced tomatoes. Don't drain off the juices, though! The more the better. Once this is well combined, add between 3 and 6 cups of chicken broth to your liking (if you want it more stew-like, just add three cups. I added 6, but I wanted something a little more soup-y in consistency). At this point, you'll want to turn your burner down to low. Add four cups of dry lentils, and make sure there's enough liquid (broth) in the pot to cover everything. At this point, you can throw in some more spices if you feel like it, or toss in a little extra black pepper (or red pepper flakes, if you like things spicy!). Go ahead and let the whole concoction simmer for about an hour, or until the lentils have a nice soft consistency. Grab a spoon, and try the broth, and adjust the seasonings accordingly. By now, things will look a little bit like this:
Mmm....I can smell the soup bubbling in my kitchen as I type this. It's smelling good, and there are only about 15 minutes left on the timer. Last thing you'll want to do is grab your stick blender (if you have one) and use it to puree just a little bit of the soup once the hour is up. If not, you could put a cup or two into a blender, and add it back to the pot once done. Once you're done pureeing some of the soup, stir it all together. The blending helps to thicken up the soup nicely, making it taste even BETTER.
Here's how it looked when I popped it into a nice deep bowl, and sprinkled some nice parmesan & romano cheese on top. YUM. It tastes 10 times better than it looks.
Happy soup-making!
