I just can’t stop making soup, even when it’s ninety degrees outside.
You may think of soup, broth, and hearty beans as purely a winter thing, but with all the fresh produce coming into my house (from the Farmer’s Market…remember, the organic gardening series were all guest posts!) I can’t help but make some of my favorites.
This soup is fantastic in the winter, too, and often gets made when spinach is abundantly on sale in the grocery store (spinach makes a great substitute for the kale). However, it’s the dipping sandwiches that make this soup really special, and any tomato found in a grocery store is less than subpar. It’s got to be a summer thing.
I definitely advocate making your own easy chicken stock, but sometimes you just want something quick and easy for those busy days. Kettle & Fire has scrupulous standards and is basically exactly what you’d make at home, 24 hour cooking, just done-for-you.
The Everything Beans Book has twenty pages of beany information, including all you could possibly want to know about legume nutrition, how to cook dry beans, and lots of time-saving tips for managing this frugal source of protein and fiber more often in your kitchen.
It also offers 30 bean recipes, for the bean lovers of the world and the bean haters.
Sausage, Kale and Bean Soup Recipe
- Prep Time: 20 min
- Cook Time: 25 min
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 2 Tbs. Extra-virgin olive oil (use the code STEWARDSHIP for 10% off at that site!)
- 1/2 or 1 lb. bulk Italian sweet or hot sausage, or use homemade sausage seasoning and any ground meat
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2–3 carrots, chopped
- 1 large potato, peeled and chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
- salt (Use the code kitchenstewardship for 15% off of your first purchase) and pepper
- 4 c. fresh kale (or other leafy green like spinach)
- 2 quarts chicken broth or stock
- Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Romano, to pass at table
Instructions
- Heat medium soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the oil and sausage and brown.
- Add veggies, bay leaf and beans. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Cook 5 minutes to soften veggies.
- Add greens and wilt. Add stock and cover.
- Raise heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Serve with grated cheese for topping.
Notes
Any ground meat can be transformed into homemade sausage with the right seasoning blend. Adjust spice to taste with cayenne.
You can leave the peels on the potatoes for nutrients, especially if you have organic.
Allow the crushed garlic to rest for 7 minutes before heating for optimal health benefits; don’t overcook.
I always encourage dry beans when you can; see how to cook them. For this recipe, you can use anywhere from 3-5 cups of cooked white beans. I make the whole bag and simply store any leftovers in the freezer!
Of course you’re going to use homemade chicken stock, without question, right?
(Recipe adapted from Rachael Ray)
The Sandwich Dipper for Summer Soup
It’s truly the sandwich that takes a good soup up to “great.”
Layer sliced tomato, mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil (or alternately, a spread of pesto) on a sandwich. Brush the outsides with olive oil, either heated gently with fresh crushed garlic in a frying pan first, or take the easy route and use EVOO (use the code STEWARDSHIP for 10% off at that site!) and garlic powder.
Grill like you would any grilled cheese OR on a George Foreman like this chicken wrap, and prepare to be amazed at what happens when grilled cheese grows up. It gets sophisticated. The way the flavors blend together with the soup is simply divine.
Best on homemade sourdough, but any hearty bread will do!
Looking for more soup recipes? You won’t want to miss the eBook Winter Soups, a compilation from over 50 real food bloggers. I truly enjoy having this book in my collection for all the great new ideas. Check it out here.
What to do with the rest of the sausage:
Other Summer Soup Recipes:
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Glad to hear about freezing greens and basil. What about melons? We planted one Sakata, Sugarbaby and Honeydew each and they are All going crazy.
Elaine,
Phew – sorry I’m so very late in replying; I got way behind on comments when I released the new Healthy Lunch Box book!
The only way I’d be able to freeze melons would be to use them in smoothies, because the texture turns to mush. 🙂 Kaie
I put very thinly sliced apples in my grilled cheese. About 1/2 a small to medium sized apples (I like Gala) for each sandwhich. Can’t wait until the tomatoes start coming in so I can add those to my sandwich AND make tomato pie! (tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil and eggs baked in a pie plate). I’ve already got my basil plants going and the tomatoes are just starting to develop.
If the greens are cooked in the broth are the oxalates neutralized sufficiently?
Rhonda,
Oxalates are kind of a debate right now, whether cooking them neutralizes them very much at all. Technically, I believe you’re supposed to toss the cooking water, so throwing them in the soup wouldn’t help. You’d have to cook or steam them separately and then add them to the soup…but I’d never take the time to do that. Unless you have a health problem related to oxalates, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. 🙂 Katie
Would a handful of red potato be okay to use?
Ashley,
In soup, anything goes! 🙂 Katie
So sorry it took me so long to respond…I got absolutely behind on comments when I released the second edition of the snacks book and truly have never caught up.
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YUM! Can’t wait to try this! Thanks for sharing! I love soup too and am always looking for new recipes – my fam loves sausage, so this is certain to be a big hit! 🙂
DH said this is the best soup I ever made! ::shock and awe:: I did ladle out his portion before adding the greens and then opted for pureed spinach which I thought would get less objections from DS1.
do you think this would still be decent if I just left out the leafy greens? DH doesn’t go for that sort of thing. Or maybe I could take out his serving and then add the greens…
Sarah,
Spinach is more forgiving than kale, to be sure…and my husband just picks them out when he gets tired of them. So there! 😉 Katie
I make a similar recipe and also include sun dried tomatoes with a little of the oil they are packed in. Just gives it another level of flavor.
.-= Emily @ Random Recycling´s last blog ..Baby Shower Eco-Gifts =-.