Lentil Soup with Sausage, Chard, and Garlic
Serves 6
This is a nourishing, healing soup with intense, surprising flavor
that sneaks up on you as you eat it. You can certainly leave out
the sausage (though the sausage fat adds character) and the greens,
but those touches—plus the addition of sizzling hot garlic at the
end—are what make this soup so unique. That final step, the
addition of hot garlic and oil, is a great technique in general: try it
any time you make a soup that would benefit from a hit of garlic.
(I’m thinking tomato soup, for example.) This soup freezes very
well, so make more than you think you’ll need and save the rest
for a miserable and damp winter’s night.½ cup olive oil, plus more for drizzling
4 large links of sweet Italian sausage*, removed from the
casing
1 medium onion, diced
2 celery stalks, cut into crescents
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into crescents
4 cloves garlic, sliced (reserve half for later in the recipe)
Kosher salt
A pinch of crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
1 cup brown lentils, sorted