The Best Sausage and Lentil Stew Recipe
A thick and flavorful recipe for sausage and lentil stew that tastes amazing. I know it will become a staple in your dinner rotation – and you just may fight over the leftovers the next day.
Lentil stew (or soup) was not something I ever ate as a kid or thought about as a young adult. I don’t even think I knew what lentils were. I grew up eating basic meat-and-potatoes dinners with an occasional taco night thrown in as our only “international” food.
But my tastes expanded in college and as a young mom I wanted to make new dishes for my family that were easy and healthy – and of course tasted good. My first experience with lentils was both Dal and an amazing lentil soup I had at an Indian restaurant – I swear I would dream about that soup!
So one day when I was watching a morning show, and saw a recipe for lentil stew with sausage—that they all raved about. I wrote it down and actually made it myself.
It was SO good – nothing like the few watery lentil soups I’d tried. This was more like that amazing Indian restaurant soup: thick and lick-the-bowl flavorful. And the leftovers were even better, believe it or not.
After a bit of tweaking, this is hands-down our favorite and the only lentil stew recipe I bother making. So if you’ve been looking for an amazing warming bowl of lentil stew, this is for you. It’s been a big hit with everyone I’ve shared it with, so I know it will be for you, too.
Sausage and Lentil Stew Recipe
There are a couple of ingredients that make this lentil stew special, one of which is tarragon – an unusual spice for a stew, but oh so good here. You must use this herb, so if you don’t have it add it to your list – even if you only use tarragon for this recipe, it will be worth it, I promise.
The other special ingredient is stewed tomatoes – yes stewed, not regular canned diced or whole tomatoes. This is the only time I use them, actually, and they really do enhance the flavor of this stew.
This isn’t a deal-breaker like the tarragon – you can use regular tomatoes and see which you like better, but we’ve always preferred it with stewed.
Tip for adding sliced or whole tomatoes to soups and stews: before adding the tomatoes, put them in another container to cut them into smaller pieces before adding to the cooking pot.
Besides the incredible flavor, I also love that this recipe only costs around $4.00 for eight hearty servings! Using sausage purchased on sale, frozen chicken broth, and tomatoes from the pantry either home-canned or bought at best prices, and inexpensive lentils, this makes a healthy, economical family meal.
As the lentil stew is cooking, the aromas that are heavenly – you will definitely be looking forward to dinner! Mmm…serve it with some crusty bread and a salad for a perfect comforting meal.
It makes enough for a couple days of leftover lunches (for most families) and I seriously make it so I can have it for lunches – it gets better as the flavors mingle. It also freezes beautifully. Hmmm – you probably get the idea that I like this stew!
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The Best Sausage and Lentil Stew Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound Italian sausage mild or hot – we like hot
- 1 onion chopped
- 3 large cloves garlic chopped
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1½ cups water
- 1 lb. dry green or brown lentils, rinsed about 2-1/4 cups
- 3 14-15oz cans stewed tomatoes (or regular canned tomatoes, cut up)
- 1/2 teaspoon tarragon
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4-1/2 teaspoon hot sauce omit if using hot sausage
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large stockpot. Add the sausage and cook until brown. Add onions and garlic; cook 5 minutes. Add broth, water, and lentils.
- Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, covered, 30 minutes.
- Stir in tomatoes and spices.
- Bring back to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, covered, until lentils are tender, 45-50 minutes.
Nutrition
Other Soups & Stews You May Like:
Amazing Cauliflower Cheese Soup
Slow Cooker Italian Sausage Vegetable Soup
This popular recipe was originally published in February of 2009 and has been updated with new photos, formatting and printable recipe. Enjoy!
Does it matter what color of lentils you use? I have never used them but read somewhere that the different colors taste differently. This sounds delicious!
Regular brown lentils are what I always use for this recipe. You can use green lentils though they tend to keep their shape (which makes them great for salads and things), so wouldn’t create that creaminess that brown give after an hour of cooking (and you may have to cook green slightly longer). And you don’t want to use red (orange) lentils as they cook very quickly so this recipe would render them mush. 🙂
Great recipe, Jami! Have had this on my list to try and finally did today–for breakfast! (we love soups and such for breakfast, especially on chilly days) Just saw your comments about the tarragon when I came back here to comment. I am not a tarragon fan so I subbed Italian seasoning, but after your comments about the tarragon being a deal breaker I think I’ll try that next time or maybe put some in the leftovers. I also only used two cans of stewed tomatoes as my husband tends to like things not very tomato-y. This makes a lot which is great as we enjoy leftovers. Am sure this would freeze well too and would be a great meal to pull out of the freezer when short on time. Thanks for another goodie!
Oh, I’m glad you finally tried it, Norma! I love that you had it for breakfast. 🙂
Yes, it does freeze so well.
I hope you do try the tarragon, but if afterwards it’s not for you, that’s why we make our own food to tailor to our own tastes, so it’s all good!
Jami–just had to come back and tell you that we added tarragon to the lentil stew when we had it leftover and it really was delicious! It gives a different “what’s that?” flavor that makes it special! That flavor doesn’t really stand out as a tarragon specifically, just makes it stand out more. Interesting to taste it two different ways. Am sure it would taste even better if it was cooked in the dish as per your directions, which is how I’ll make it next time! Thanks!
I’m so glad you tried it and let me know, Norma! I’ve always thought that’s what elevated this dish from other lentil stews. 🙂
I loved this recipe. It has been on my “todo pile” for a while!
Hubby doesn’t like tomatoes, so subbed tomato sauce.
I don’t like tarragon so i subbed some garlic powder (i know, not the same).
But my goodness, the flavor and texture on a cold winter’s night was so wonderful! Thank you so much!
I’m so glad you tried this, Nicole – and glad it worked with your changes!!
Thank you so much for the review!