Sausage and Lentil soup

My husband LOVES Carraba's Sausage and Lentil soup, and I was trying to duplicate it.  I came across this Rachael Ray’s recipe for “Hungarian Stoup”, and it looked like it could be a winner- and it was!

Ingredients:

2 TBS olive oil
1 1/2 lbs hot Italian sausage (I ‘ve used turkey sausage the last couple times I’ve made it and it turns out great!
3 cloves garlic
1 onion
2 portabella mushrooms (I’ve made it with or without this)
1 cup carrots chopped or shredded
1 cup lentils
1 large potato chopped (I’ve made it without this, and my hubby liked it even better)
salt, pepper, bay leaf
2 tsp smoked paprika *
3 sprigs fresh rosemary (or 1/2 tsp dry)
1 14 oz can fire roasted chopped tomatoes (hunts makes these)
6 cups chicken stock
4 cups kale, chopped
*make this yourself by combining 1 1/2 tsp cumin, 3/4 tsp paprika and pinch of cayenne pepper

1. Heat oil, brown and crumble sausage (removing casing first if using real sausage)
2. add garlic, onion, mushrooms and cook for a few minutes
3. add everything else, EXCEPT the kale, cover and boil for 15 minutes.
4. Add kale and let stand 5 more minutes.  Take rosemary stems out.