Sausage and Spinach Lentil Soup

Rinse lentils and put in soup pot. Add water and chopped celery. Bring to boil and then reduce to simmer. Meanwhile, remove the casings from the sausage and cook in a non-stick pan, breaking apart the sausage and cooking it like ground beef until it is cooked through and starting to brown. (I pull the sausage apart into smaller pieces after I remove the casings, It helps it cook more evenly) Add the sausage to the soup pot. Simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until the soup thickens and the lentils become soft (you really can't over cook it). In the last 15 minutes or so, add the frozen spinach. Let it thaw and break apart. Make sure the spinach has some time to cook once it has broken apart. Add salt if necessary. Some notes: The Flavor from this recipe mostly comes from the sausage. So I recommend buying a really good one. I get mine from a farmers market in South Plainfield. It is homemade and the spices work really well in the soup. I've used Primo Sausage from the grocery store and it tasted good, too. Also, there is no added salt because the sausage is usually salty, but if you find you need salt, you can add it to taste or throw in a chicken bullion or two. I used sweet sausage for the soup I made you, but if you like things spicy, you can use hot sausage and it really adds some great flavor.