If you are using sausage (Cut the links in 1/2 inch sections.), you may need a bit more oil to cook it in. Use the same soup pan that you will fix the rest of the soup in. Heat oil. Cut up the sausage and brown. Lower heat to cook through. Set aside in paper towels to catch the oil.

If you have cooked sausage you will have a little oil left in the pan. Dump in the onions and garlic. Add oil if needed. Scrap the bottom and pull up the sausage bits. Cook onions/garlic until color changes.

Add liquid (start with 7-8 cups of stock/water and add remainder as needed), carrots, celery, potatoes, half of the parsley. Wash and pick over the lentils. Remove any debris and hard lentils. Add the lentils to the soup.

Add all the spices, starting with 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper. Add more (cayenne or black pepper, salt) as desired after cooking for 1 1/4 hours (see below).

Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer. Cook for 1 1/4 hours. Check the lentils. They should be expanding and softening. Add sausage, rest of parsley. Check for seasonings. Cook for another 20-30 minutes or longer depending on the lentils.

Alternate for non-oil users: Use liquid to steam sausage. (Will need to add more water as directed in the liquid step above.) Put water in soup pan to cover sausages. Bring to a high-simmer. Add sausages and cook by dropping temperature. Add to soup as above. Cooking in this way might give the sausages a taste that you won't like in the soup. It will certainly change the taste of the meat and it will be blander.

OR: Eliminate the meat completely and start with Step 2 using oil to cook the onions and garlic. Cook and serve.