Red Lentil Soup with Andouille Sausage
image via angela mayhoe
lentils for a rainy day
When the forecast calls for a cold rainy day in LA, I stock up on food, yarn and pre-select a Netflix “bingeable” show - and that’s exactly how it went down for this red lentil soup. I had a bag of red lentils in the pantry (saving them for a rainy day) and decided to add some andouille sausage for the win. I used this recipe here for reference but of course, I added and adjusted it to my palette preference.
red lentil soup with andouille sausage
serves 4
3 tablespoons olive oil, more for drizzling
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ berbere seasoning Ethiopian Spice Blend**
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, option to add less
1 quart vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 cup red lentils
8 ounces andouille sausage, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
Juice of ½ lemon, more to taste
Fresh chopped cilantro, garnish
In a large pot, *add minced garlic and oil. Turn on heat gradually to high and sauté garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add onion and andouille sausage - sauté until golden, about 4 minutes.
Stir in tomato paste, cumin, salt, black pepper, berbere and cayenne - sauté for 2 minutes.
Add broth, 2 cups water, lentils and carrot. Bring to simmer, then partially cover pot and turn heat to medium-low. Simmer until lentils are soft, about 30 minutes.
Using an immersion/regular blender or food processor, purée half the soup then add it back to pot. Soup should be somewhat chunky.
Stir in lemon juice - garnish with cilantro and a drizzle of good olive oil.
*Cooking tip - add garlic and oil in an unheated pan. Allow heat to gradually build - the garlic will infuse the oil without burning
**Berbere is used in a lot of Ethiopian dishes. If you’re LA-based, any market in Little Ethiopia will carry this blend.