Lentil, Sausage and Spinach Soup

Lentil, Sausage and Spinach Soup

This was the first time making this recipe, and it was SO good I had to make a blog post about it even though I forgot to take pictures of each step. However, its basically just throwing it in the crockpot so its pretty easy!! 

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, diced
• 2-3 carrots, diced 
• 2-3 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 T olive oil
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp fresh thyme (or dried if that's all you have)
• 1/2-1 tsp cayenne (this is definitely to taste, add a little and add more in the end if you want more kick)
• 4 links precooked chicken sausage, I used garlic herb chicken sausage from Trader Joes
• 1 can diced tomatoes, with liquid 
• 7 cups chicken stock
• 3/4 cup lentils 
• 1 package of Trader Joes 10 oz brown rice, found in the freezer section, cooked in the microwave (or make your own brown rice)
• 2-4 (per taste) cups fresh spinach
• 2.5 T Balsamic vinegar 
• Salt and Pepper to taste. Its a large batch so it will definitely take a little bit. You can add more at the end if need be. 

Dice your carrots, celery, and onion. Heat olive oil in a pan and saute until softened. Around 5 minutes. Add minced garlic, fresh thyme, salt and pepper. Cook an additional few minutes. Add to crockpot.

Slice your sausage, add to crockpot. 

Add the stock, canned tomatoes, lentils, a little more salt and pepper and cook in the crockpot on high for 3 hours. 

Add the rice and spinach, cook for 1 more hour. 

Stir in balsamic vinegar and cook an additional 15 minutes. 

Serve!

This soup is SO good, AND healthy! Perfect for a cold evening. Enjoy!