Sausage Kale White Bean Soup
Ladies and gentlemen…and everybody else.
It is soup season!
Nothing makes me crave a good bowl of steaming soup like cool breezes, leaves fluttering down and my toes stuck under Mr. Wonderful’s legs to keep warm at night.
My sis-in-law Linda, an italian goddess residing in Texas, is responsible for this recipe. She passed it onto my other sis Cheryl, who passed it onto us. We finally made it last night. I added a bit more meat for the guys in the family and also saw Cheryl’s note that navy beans would be good and added those as well.
After a night of angling my camera this way and that for good shots and lighting, and finally getting the recipe done (it was really a breeze), I opened the door to where my camera card was in my camera only to discover…I hadn’t put it in.
Long pause.
You have no idea how much this crushes a food blogger. Seriously.
So I took some final shots of the soup and I’ll post the recipe as it’s pretty much a no-brainer. The NEXT time I make it, I promise I’ll come back and insert the photos of the process.
Sometimes food bloggers fail.
It happens.
Anyway, in a nutshell, you can use your choice of sausage here – the recipe calls for 1/4 pound of ground pork and 1/4 pound of ground mild italian sausage. We opted for a mild italian sausage that was part chicken and part pork. You can sometimes find sausage at a good butcher or market that is loose, but if all you can find is the kind made into sausage, no biggie! Just take a sharp paring knife and split through the sausage casing and the meat will come right out!
Saute that a bit, then while it’s still pink, add in some chopped garlic and onion. Saute those around for a couple minutes then pour a quart of chicken stock over top of it all. Add in some chopped carrots and potatoes. Cut off the tough 3 inch ends of the kale and chop it into bite size pieces (I used the flat kale not curly)
simmer on low for about an hour. About 10 minutes before serving, add in one can of navy beans, liquid and all. Ladle it up in a bowl and if you like, grate some fresh parmesan over top.
This was yummy. We served it with a loaf of crusty Italian bread that we sliced and drizzled lightly with olive oil, popped into the oven for about 8 minutes to crips up a bit. When I took it out, I cut a clove of garlic in half, rubbed it lightly over top each slice and then grated some fresh parmesan over top of each hot slice. It’s delicious dipped into the rich broth of the soup.
Enjoy this soup during the cold winter months and keep your toes warm!
Katie’s Printable Recipe – Sausage Kale White Bean Soup
