We’ve all been there.  Grocery shopping hasn’t been done, but dinner needs to be made.  Let’s say you find some chicken sausage (Mexican style) in your freezer.  What do you do?

This is what I found yesterday.  Hmmmm, Mexican style chicken sausage, what to do?  I keep dry foods in jars by my stove. I saw black beans and black eyed peas, both of which take many hours of soaking.  I also saw lentils.  I remembered a lentil soup with sausage from a restaurant and thought, “Two main ingredients, what else do I need?”

I remembered kale was in the soup.  Well, fortunately for me, I slice up kale and freeze it to use in my smoothies.  Check!

I also remember tomatoes.  I just happen to have a large can of stewed tomatoes, not fresh no, but in a pinch it’ll do.

Now, the sausage I have is “Mexican style”, but the soup I’m thinking of is Italian.  There’s red pepper flakes in the sausage and bell peppers.  This can still work.

When I’m cooking from scratch, I don’t measure with spoons or cups.  Rather I use my hands, and I “free pour”.  So I will do my best to give you the recipe I “followed”.

4 links sausage (I used “Mexican Style” chicken sausage – Italian sausage would definitely work too)

2 cloves garlic – minced

1 – 32oz can stewed tomatoes with basil

1 carton (32oz) – chicken stock (I had low-sodium)

2 Cups (I used about 2 1/2 “handfuls”) lentils – cover with water & boil with a pinch of salt for 20 – 30 minutes.  Remove from heat and let sit until lentils have absorbed water.  (Add water if needed, lentils should not be hard in the center).

1 Cup kale – chopped

3/4 teaspoon fennel seeds (may need less if using Italian sausage)

2 tablespoons fresh basil, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

2 cups water

Olive oil

Remove casing from sausage.  Drizzle stock pot with olive oil, crumble and brown in stock pot over medium-high heat.  Remove and set aside.

Add minced garlic to the stock pot and stir about 30 – 60 seconds until starting to brown.  Add tomatoes, chicken stock and water.

In a small cast iron skillet, toast the fennel seeds over medium-high heat.  Shake the skillet to keep the seeds from burning.  When seeds take on a darker color and are fragrant, transfer to a mortar and pestle.  Grind seeds into a rough powder.  Add to stock.  Season with salt and pepper.

Bring stock to boil then reduce to simmer.  Add sausage, kale and red wine vinegar.  Simmer 10 minutes.  Add lentils & fresh basil.  Simmer another 15 minutes.

Ladle into bowls and enjoy!