Italian Lentil Soup with Tempeh Sausage

This is one of my favorite soups during the winter and it can easily be dumped into a crockpot all day.  This is the vegan version.  For the meat version you can eliminate the sausage portion of the recipe and make sure you add more garlic to the soup portion. I also add some freshly grated parmesan or pecorino romano if you prefer. It is summer while I post this so I also added some chopped patty pan squash.

Tempeh Sausage Lentil Soup   

For the sausage:

1 pkg of tempeh any variety

2 tbls of extra virgin olive oil

3 cloves minced garlic

1-2 tbl water or balsamic vinegar

½ tsp each of:

Ground sage

Crushed red pepper

Black pepper

Mixed Italian seasoning

Whole fennel seeds

1 tsp of tamari

For the soup

1 small diced sweet potato

2 sliced carrots

2 small ribs of diced celery

1 chopped medium onion

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 cup of lentils

5 cups of water

1 tsp dried thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

1 bunch of chopped kale or other green

½ fresh chopped parsley

Combine garlic, herbs and spices in a bowl and crush up slightly.  Combine 1 tbls of olive oil and tempeh with spice combo.  Add tamari, vinegar or water and mush up.  Add another tbls of olive oil into a pot and fry up onion, carrots, celery and crumbled tempeh until soft and browned. Next add sweet potato, lentils tomatoes and water along with thyme and salt and pepper to taste.  Cook till lentils are soft and add kale.  Simmer another ten minutes.  Remove from heat and add parsley.  Drizzle with olive oil and serve with warm bread.