Spicy Lentils with Sausage
This spicy lentils with sausage dish is not your average lentils recipe -- it's flavorful, hearty, and so simple to make that you'll love it for an easy weeknight meal!
Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound kielbasa sausage cut into 8 equal pieces and split down the middle
- 1 onion minced
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies medium heat
- 3 cups water
- 2 teaspoons Better Than Bullion Organic Soup Base (or bullion of your choice, or use just 1.5 cups water with 1.5 cups of broth)
- 1 cup lentils rinsed
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat until shimmering. Carefully add the sausage, cut side down, and cook until browned. This should take 2 to 5 minutes.
- Transfer the sausage to a plate and leave the fat in the pan. Over medium-high heat, cook the onion in the fat until soft, about 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic, chili powder, thyme, and paprika and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds.
- Stir in the tomatoes, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Add the water, bouillon, and lentils. Bring the mixture to a boil.
- Cover and reduce the heat to low and cook until the lentils are tender but have a little crunch to them, around 35 minutes.
- Nestle the kielbasa into the lentils and continue to cook, covered, over low heat until the lentils are completely tender, about 10 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
- There are lots of types of lentils, and you want brown or dark green ones. Red or yellow lentils cook to mush and are used in things like curry and other sauces. We don't want mush here, so don't get red or yellow lentils.
- The sausage here is important. You are going to brown the sausage in the pan, use the drippings to cook the onion, and then cook everything else in that same pan. When the sausage and onion are cooking, the bottom of the pan will start to get all brown and crusty with meaty and oniony treasure. When you add the liquid, all that brown stuff on the bottom of the pan comes up and into the rest of your dish. This is what "deglazing" is if you've heard that on a cooking show. That caramelized layer on the bottom of the pan makes the result flavor amazing. You can't skip the sausage. Don't even try.
- They don't need to be soaked like dried beans and have a short cooking time. They are also cheap. Are you convinced to go get a bag yet?
- Pound for pound, raw lentils have more protein than steak. While not as protein-dense once cooked, they pack even more iron than meat, in addition to other vitamins and minerals.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 of 6 servings | Calories: 402kcal | Carbohydrates: 26g | Protein: 20g | Fat: 25g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 12g | Cholesterol: 53mg | Sodium: 974mg | Potassium: 656mg | Fiber: 11g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 282IU | Vitamin C: 10mg | Calcium: 60mg | Iron: 4mg
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