Sluttishly Savoury: Sausage, Chorizo and Red Lentil Soup

As soon as the clocks go back and the heating goes on in Domestic Sluttery HQ, the gigantic saucepan comes out and soon soup is bubbling away. I love making soup. It's my favourite thing to cook. I take a leaf out of my Mum's book and this soup is chunky and rustic. I'm not a fan of creaming everything together. The best thing about this kind of soup is that you can throw in whatever veg you happen to have. Even that funny looking carrot you weren't sure what to do with.

The lentils can be a bit of a pain. I only use the red ones because they don't need soaking overnight - just boil them for 20 minutes. But they match the herbs and spices in the sausage and chorizo and you'll have a very yummy warming soup. Makes you feel all happy and wintery.

Serves 4, or leaves you with lots of yummy leftovers.

You'll need:

• Six Cumberland sausages
• 100g chorizo
• 1 Leek
• 1 Vegetable stock cube
• Lots of spring greens - the more greens, the more wholesome you'll feel. Fact.
  
• Lot of mushrooms
• 2 red onions
• Knob of butter
• 1 chilli
• 1 Clove of garlic
• 2 cups red lentils
• A handful of new potatoes
• 1 can butter beans
• Salt and pepper
  

Make it!

• Pop the potatoes and lentils on to boil and put the sausages under the grill.
• Fry off the onions and mushrooms.
• While they're bubbling and grilling away, chop everything up and throw into a gigantic saucepan. Really, huge.
• Throw in the beans, spices and the stock cube.
• Then pour a glass of wine and wait for the potatoes and lentils to be done.
• Chop the potatoes and then add them to the mix.
• Rinse the lentils under water to get rid of the starch, add them to your saucepan full of goodies.
• Boil water and pour so it's covering the top of your soup mix.
• By now, the sausages should be done so chop them up into bite sized pieces and add them to the mix.
• Leave everything simmering on a low heat for about thirty minutes. Check it about half way through and top up with water if you need to.
• Serve with crusty bread by a warm fire, under a blanket. Stay all cosy and watch a BBC costume drama.

Flickr image from Wordridden's photostream. Your soup will look a bit like that, depending on what you throw in it.