This is one of our go-to dishes, especially when we have lots of stray vegetables that need to be used up. It’s comfort food for the road. However, it takes at least an hour on the stovetop, so we usually reserve this recipe for when we’re also at a campsite with picnic tables, and we can set up our camping stove outside. This is also a great dish to share with other campers we may have befriended. We just increase the size of the cookpot and double the ingredients. Easy-peasy!

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 4-5 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 1 stalk celery, sliced
• 1 poblano pepper, seeded and diced
• 1 small mild jalepeno, seeded and diced (optional)
• ½ cup fresh mushrooms, diced
• ½ cup roma tomatoes, diced
• 1 cup lacinato kale
• ½ cup dry lentils
• 2 vegan sausages, halved and sliced
• 4 cups veggie stock
• 1 Tbs mixed Italian herbs
• 2 tsp smoked sea salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• Juice from 1 lime

Preparation:

In a 4-quart soup pot, bring the olive oil to temp and sauté the onion, garlic, peppers, carrot and celery until the onion turns translucent. Add the spices and half the salt and pepper and stir. Sauté for another 2-3 minutes. Add the stock and bring back to a simmer. Add the lentils and sausage, reduce heat and simmer until the lentils are nearly done, about 30 minutes.

Add the mushrooms, kale, tomatoes and lime juice. Simmer for another 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are tender. Taste and add the rest of the salt and pepper as needed. Add more water/stock if the stew gets too thick, or you prefer a thinner stew. You can also add more cumin and coriander to give the dish more depth, or more lime juice to brighten the flavor.

Serve with fried bread or toast, and garnish with lime wedges and chopped parsley.