Portuguese Kale and Sausage Soup

I told you that kale is my new go-to vegetable.  It only makes sense that I give you a kale recipe.  There are a lot of recipes for this soup which is no surprise because it is delicious, easy, cheap, and great year-round.  Browsing through about 15 different recipes, I found some had too few ingredients which I didn't think would lend to a full, rich flavor and others seemed to have an overabundance of... stuff.  I like to think my version has a good balance of flavor without too many ingredients.  Oh, and this is absolutely a one pot meal; keep that in mind when planning your weekly menu.

Portuguese Kale and Sausage Soup
1 lrg onion, diced
3 med carrots, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
2 lrg cloves garlic, minced (~1 Tbsp)
1 14oz can diced tomatoes
1 14 oz can organic red kidney beans, drained*
2 lrg potatoes, cut into roughly 3/4 in cubes (~4 C)
~14 oz spicy sausage, sliced**
1 bunch kale, de-stemmed and chopped
4-5 C water
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp cayenne (optional)
juice of 1 med lemon
oil, salt and pepper

   In a large pot, heat about 1 tbsp oil over med heat.  Saute onions, carrots, and celery until tender, 7-10 minutes.  Add garlic, tomatoes, beans, potatoes, sausage, water, thyme, cayenne, about 3/4 tsp salt, and pepper.  Simmer partially covered for 15-20 minutes.  (If at any time you think it needs more water, add some.)
   Add kale.  This will probably need to be added in batches.  When all the kale is wilted into the soup add lemon juice and simmer for about 10 minutes, until the kale and potatoes are tender.  Salt and pepper to taste.
   Serves 4-6.

*I specifically say organic kidney beans because most of the regular canned kidney beans have sugar added.  You do not want sweet beans for this.
**Traditionally this soup is made with Portuguese chourico or linguica.  They are delicious, highly spiced, cooked pork sausages; they are also hard to find in a lot of regular grocery stores.  Andouille, a spicy Cajun sausage, would be a great substitute.  I used Hillshire Farm's Hot Smoked Sausage, which was very good and little more budget friendly than other sausages.

Also, I am aware that this is not a Spanish dish, if you are looked at my tags all confused. It is simply the best fit of my current tag listings.