Rinse beans before cooking. Soak beans quickly or overnight.
Rinse beans, add cold water to cover the beans by about 1 inch. Bring to boil over high heat, boil for 5 minutes.
Add sliced carrot, red bell pepper, tomato, onion, garlic, and drizzle about 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, paprika, crushed mint, thyme. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally, or until beans are tender.
Just before soup is ready, slice sausage and brown in a skillet. Add to soup and cook for another 5 minutes to incorporate the flavors. Add more salt and spices to taste.
Serve soup while it's warm.
Notes
To Soak The BeansQuick Soak - Place the beans in large saucepan with about 7 cups water. Bring to rapid boil on medium high heat, and boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 1 hour. Drain soak water and rinse beans. I also prefer to peel the Lima beans (I would rather spend 10 minutes on that than have white peels floating in my soup). Overnight Soak - Place beans in large saucepan with about 7 cups water. Cover and let stand overnight, or at least 6-8 hours. Drain soak water and rinse. Again I would also peel the Lima beans as I don't like the peels from the beans floating in the soup.Notes and Tips
Make the soup in a dutch oven. A heavy bottomed pan will also work. They distribute the heat more evenly and the bottom of the soup is less likely to burn.
Finely chop all of the veggies. This soup isn't blended, so chop everything quite small so that it's easy to eat.
Taste the soup before serving and adjust the seasoning to your taste.