serves 8-10

1/4 C or more olive oil

1 large yellow onion, diced small
5-6 celery stalks, diced small
5-6 carrots, peeled and diced small
5-6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

3 T tomato paste

1 C red wine

1 – 28 ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes (crushed with your hands)

4-5 bay leaves
5-6 whole cloves
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1 T plus 1 t dried thyme
2 t salt

1 pound bag of green lentils, rinsed

12 C chicken stock or broth

Spanish chorizo links, diced

 

In a large preheated soup pot, add olive oil. Add onion, celery, carrots and garlic. Spritz vegetable mix with salt and pepper. Sauté over medium heat until vegetables soften and meld. You may need to add some additional olive oil.

Add tomato paste. Continue to sauté until vegetables and paste begin to stick to the bottom of the pan.

Increase heat and add red wine. Reduce red wine until almost completely evaporated. You should draw a line on the bottom of the pan and it should stay dry. See photo.

Add crushed tomatoes. Add bay leaves, cloves, red pepper flakes, thyme and salt. Mix well.  Add lentils and stock. Bring soup to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until lentils have softened. At this point, add chorizo and simmer an additional 15-20 minutes.

I prepared the soup a couple of days before I served it. I chilled the soup in the refrigerator, uncovered, overnight. The next day, I covered the soup for an additional day of storage. Before service, I reheated and added the chorizo.

NOTES:

The soup will develop more flavor when it has a chance to rest in the refrigerator. The soup can be made several days out. Add the chorizo just prior to service.

Aurelia’s Spanish Chorizo (available online and at HEB) is delicious. I ended up using a Chorizo purchased at Whole Foods. Perfectly fine.

For service, I toasted up a baguette. Brush baguette slices with olive oil and bake until crisp. Also, I added some chopped parsley and parmesan cheese to top.

The soup freezes well too. Would not freeze with chorizo.