Vegan Lentil “Sausage” Soup!  Aromatic, savory Italian sausage flavors deliciously infuse this hearty, wholesome soup. Get your bowl and spoon ready for a comforting winter meal.

This healthy vegan nod to Carrabba’s Sausage Lentil Soup is all that and more!  Protein packed lentils, zesty onions, sweet carrots, earthy celery, tasty garlic, and rich tomatoes simmer in a warm-spiced broth and perfect for chilly days. This oil-free, low-fat Vegan Lentil “Sausage” Soup is sure to make all your soup dreams come true!

Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, gluten free, no highly processed ingredients.

Hi there, Ameera here!

This vegan nod to Carrabba’s Sausage Lentil soup is so yummy!  We devoured it in no time flat. Dad was licking the bowl looking for more of this tastiness.  He declared the first kitchen test perfect and said “Don’t change a thing!”

That’s kind of hard for me and Mom as we are always trying to push our recipes a tad bit more to ensure incredible flavor!  Sometimes we push things too far and have to go backwards (LOL), but that is OK, at least we are always looking to see if we can pack in even more flavor.

Maximum Flavor

Yes, sometimes one can add too many spices and herbs, but again, we like to challenge ourselves to level up the flavor! LOL We sometimes get complaints about having too many spices in our recipes. Not from a flavor standpoint, but simply because it requires one to have a lot of spices on hard.  We totally get it!

Our philosophy is that in order to get maximum flavor, sometimes it takes a lot of spices to compensate for the lack of oil in dishes.   You can certainly find other recipes where minimal ingredients is the goal; however, we refuse to sacrifice flavor for minimalism.

Sure, if we can achieve maximum flavor using less ingredients, we will certainly do so, but our experience hasn’t necessarily shown us that this works in our humble opinion.

3 Key Spices

We are often asked why we tend to use this combination of onion powder, garlic powder, and dried minced onions in a lot of our recipes along with fresh onions and fresh garlic.  We know this confuses people, but what we are doing here is layering in flavor.  Fresh onions and garlic serve as a layer of flavor, then using these same ingredients in a powder form, layers in depth of flavor.  The dried minced onions tend to temper and round out spices with its slightly sweet mellowness.  The combination works together to create great depth and rounds out the flavors perfectly in our humble opinion.

We saw that a Reader had recommended one of our recipes but added that they now buy the restaurant size dried minced onions from Sam’s Club. I totally LOL’ed.  That is exactly what we do too!!  We buy our garlic powder, onion powder and dried minced onions from Sam’s Club in those big containers too!

Most of our other spices and herbs are purchased from Penzeys simply because they have amazing products with rich, fresh, aromatic qualities.  And no, we do not receive any compensation/commission from recommending Penzeys, we just love them that much.  Feel free to use your favorite spices.  We are often asked about spices and herbs so we are just sharing information.

I’ll let Mom tell you more.

Hi!  Robin here!

I really enjoyed this soup!  It was packed with healthy ingredients and tons of flavor!  We made this recipe easy by providing both Instant Pot and Stove Top instructions.

We hope you give this recipe a try, it’s sooooo good!

If you try this comforting soup, we would love to know if you enjoy it as much as we do! Please leave us a review! Post a picture on Facebook or Instagram and tag us!  We would love to hear from you.

Products Used:

• Instant Pot or Ceramic/Enamel Lined Dutch Oven or similarly large stock pot with a tight-fitting lid

Vegan Lentil “Sausage” Soup

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• Author: Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures
• Prep Time: 12 Minutes
• Cook Time: 13 Minutes
• Total Time: 25 Minutes (+Rest Time)
• Yield: 3-4 Servings 1x
• Category: Soup
• Method: Instant Pot/Stovetop
• Cuisine: Italian
• Diet: Vegan

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Description

Aromatic Italian sausage flavors deliciously infuse this hearty, wholesome Vegan Lentil “Sausage” Soup. A delicious oil-free, low-fat meal!

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Ingredients

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Base Ingredients:

• 1 medium yellow onion, fine dice
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 celery rib, diced
• 2 Tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth *
• 3 cups water
• 1 Tablespoon reduced-sodium tamari *
• ¼ teaspoon liquid smoke (optional) *
• 1 – [ 14 oz. can ] petite diced tomatoes
• 1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda *
• 1 cup uncooked brown lentils, rinsed and picked through *

 Spice/Herb Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 Tablespoons dried minced onions
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley
• ½ teaspoon dried crushed thyme leaves *
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ¼ teaspoon dried fennel powder (+/-) *
• ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika (+/-)
• ½ to 1 teaspoon sea salt (+/-) *
• 1 bay leaf

Other Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Optional Toppings:

• Chopped fresh parsley

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Instructions

Instant Pot Instructions

1. Place the Spice/Herb Ingredients (except the bay leaf) in a small bowl, mix well, set aside.
2. Add all the Base Ingredients and Spice/Herb Mix, stir well to combine, then tuck the bay leaf into the mixture. Set the Instant Pot to Manual Pressure High for 13 minutes.  When finished, press Cancel and allow to sit for 2 minutes, then do a Quick Release.  Unplug the Instant Pot.
3. Once all the pressure is released, carefully remove the lid, add the apple cider vinegar. Stir well to combine. Taste test the flavors and add any additional seasonings at this time, stir to combine, allow at least 5 minutes for the flavors to marry. Discard the bay leaf. Serve and enjoy.

Stove Top Instructions

1. Place the Spice/Herb Ingredients (except the bay leaf) in a small bowl, mix well, set aside.
2. In a large ceramic/enamel-lined pot or similar stock pot, add the diced onions, carrots and celery, sauté over medium-high heat until the veggies begin to soften, approximately 7 to 9 minutes, stirring periodically to prevent burning. Add a tablespoon or so of water if they start to stick and/or to prevent burning.
3. Add the minced garlic, sauté for 1 minute stirring constantly, then add all remaining the Base Ingredients (except the baking soda) and Spice/Herb Mix, stir well to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower to a low-boiling simmer, add the bay leaf, baking soda, and lentils, stir to combine. Cover with a tight-fitting lid.  Simmer for 35 to 45 minutes until the lentils are tender, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove the lid, then add the apple cider vinegar. Stir well to combine, simmer for 2 minutes. Taste test the flavors and add any additional seasonings at this time, stir to combine, remove from the stove and allow at least 5 minutes for the flavors to marry.  Discard the bay leaf.   Serve and enjoy.

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Notes

*TIPS for Success:

• Instant Pot: We used an 8-quart Instant Pot.  If you use a 6-quart Instant Pot or a different lentil, you may need to reduce the time in the Instant Pot accordingly.
• Flavors to Marry: Make sure you allow at least 5 minutes for the flavors to marry after mashing the beans.  The flavors continue to develop once the soup slightly cools.
• Instant Pot Sauté: If you wish to add some extra flavor on the stove top, feel free to sauté the onions, carrots, celery and minced garlic until tender. We tried using the sauté function with the Instant Pot doing the same, and it really made no discernable difference.  It did make a difference on the stove top.

*Notes Continued:

*Vegetable Stock:   We use Pacific Organic Low Sodium Vegetable Stock. We love this brand because it is Whole Food Plant Based compliant, as it does not contain MSG, has no oil, and does not contain any highly-processed ingredients.

*Baking Soda:  Baking soda is often used as a neutralizer for dishes that contain a lot of acidity, typically from tomatoes.  We use it in this dish to remove some of the tomato acidity (from the petite diced tomatoes) without losing the tomatoey flavor. When you add it, the mixture may bubble up, then settle down as it neutralizes the acidity.  It also enhances the cooking of the lentils. Acidity from tomatoes tends to slow down the lentils ability to become tender.

*Tamari: We used San J Tamari Soy Sauce, Gluten Free, Reduced Sodium.  You can substitute the tamari with reduced sodium soy sauce, Braggs Liquid Aminos, or Braggs Coconut Liquid Aminos.

*Liquid Smoke:  We used Colgin Natural Hickory Liquid Smoke.  Please feel free to use your favorite liquid smoke.  You can leave it out if you wish with the understanding that the flavor will change accordingly.  The liquid smoke brings forth that smoky flavor that can be associated with ham.

*Sea Salt:  Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.

*Serving:  3 to 4 (makes 7 cups)

*Storage:  Refrigerate and use within 5 days, freezes well.

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