Sausage Lentil Soup - Carrabba's copycat

We ate at Carrabba's for the first time this winter and I had some Sausage and Lentil Soup as a first course.   Honestly, soup isn't something I normally order at a restaurant for some reason, but maybe it came with a meal.  I don't know.  All I remember for sure is there were two soup choices, the waiter recommend their Sausage and Lentil Soup, I said okay.  

It was more than okay.  It was delicious!  At home, I went looking for a similar recipe and found numerous ones online.  They don't vary much from each other, so I chose one that looked the most straight forward.  The recipe I used (and adapted) can be found here: Sausage Lentil Soup by Boos Mom.  

I've typed out the recipe below because there are some measurements that didn't make it into the original recipe.  I also made some minor changes.  If you try it, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Sausage and Lentil Soup (like Carrabba's)

1 lb ground Italian Sausage
1 large onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
7 cups chicken broth
2 (14 1/2 oz) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
2-3 garlic cloves (minced)
1 tsp salt
2 cups dry lentils 
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp thyme
1-2 bay leaves

Note: I used dried spices

Saute vegetables in small amount of olive oil 'till they begin to soften.  Set aside.

Brown Italian sausage and drain.  

In a large pot combine sausage and sauteed vegetables.  Add remaining ingredients.

Bring to a simmer.  Stirring off and on, simmer in open pot for 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

Remove bay leaves before serving.

Hubs sprinkled some shredded cheese in his, but I liked this with nothing more added to mine. 

This soup freezes great.  In fact, today we finished off what I froze when I first made this in January.  It was just as delicious as when first served.  I'm not an eater of super spicy foods, but this has a perfect amount of kick for us.  If you'd prefer it less spicy, I imagine using less red pepper flakes would help to manage that.

We enjoyed ours today with some grilled cheese sandwiches made with sliced Everything French Bread.  Mmmmm.