Rachael Ray'S Hungarian Sausage And Lentil Stoup - cooking recipe

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 lbs bulk hot Italian sausage
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 portabella mushrooms, gills scraped out, chopped
1 cup carrot, shredded
1 cup lentils
1 large starchy potato, peeled and chopped
salt and pepper
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons smoked paprika (or substitute a mix of 2 teaspoons cumin, 1 teaspoon sweet paprika and 2 pinches cayenne pepper)
3 sprigs fresh rosemary, intact on stems
1 (14 ounce) can chopped fire-roasted tomatoes or (14 ounce) can regular diced tomatoes
6 cups chicken stock
1 (10 ounce) box frozen spinach, thawed and drained

Preparation

In a medium sized pot, simmer lentils in chicken stock.
In a second pot, saute sausage in olive oil.
Add garlic, onions and mushrooms to the sausage. Cook a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add carrots, lentils, potato, salt and pepper, bay leaf, paprika (or substitute mixture) and rosemary to sausage pot. Don't worry about the woody rosemary stems - the leaves will fall off as it cooks.
Add tomatoes to sausage pot. Bring to a good rolling boil and boil for 15 minutes.
Combine the two pots.
Wilt the greens in and remove the rosemary stems. Let sit 5 minutes off the heat before serving.