Lentil Soup with Soy Chorizo, Cheese, Sour Cream and Chives over Cauliflower

Lentil Soup with Soy Chorizo, Cheese, Sour Cream and Chives over Cauliflower    

Dinner today made up for any shortcomings of lunch.

We tested a meatless soy chorizo sausage. The idea was to cook cauliflower in one pan, and lentil soup in another. Take the soy chorizo sausage and chop it into chunks and put them into the lentil soup. The final step was then to put cauliflower into the bowl, ladle the sausage filled lentil soup over the cauliflower, and top it all with a dollop of sour cream, some vegan cheese and chopped chives.

Things didn’t quite work out the way we planned. Not sure we knew enough about cooking the chorizo product because it came in a plastic casing. The first thing I did was to cut it into sausage chunks. Then my wife noted that the plastic casing was supposed to be removed before cooking. So, we picked up each chunk and removed the plastic outer casing. As a part of that process, the chorizo chunks turned into like ground chorizo because it literally fell apart once the casing was no longer holding the material in a sausage shape. The chorizo “sausage” was not “packed” and did not hold together like regular sausage.

I grew up on a farm in the Midwest; or more specifically, central Illinois and moved west in 1986. Over the years, our taste in food has grown accustomed to Southwest flavors and we love them. Both my wife and I grew up learning from our families, that when faced with a challenge or adversity you always Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome! The chorizo smelled good and so we just added the “ground” chorizo to the hot lentil soup. This chorizo gave the soup some really special flavor and when eaten it provided a slow heat which crept up throughout the meal but went away directly after one stopped eating.

We put the steamy soft cauliflower into the bowl, ladled the chorizo lentil soup over the cauliflower, and topped it all with a dollop of sour cream, some vegan cheese and chopped chives. It was heavenly. I hope if you make it, you enjoy it just as much!  When we make this again, after January, we’ll eliminate the sour cream because that’s not vegan and not allowed on our modified vegan diet. Anyone have ideas what to use as a good tasting sour cream substitute?  Infinityman@cox.net