Zuppa!

I put up a poll... Pumpkin Soup or a White Bean/Kale/Sausage soup.  White Bean/Kale/Sausage won out! Here it is. If you've been around, you know I'm not great at recipes. It's a good soup though, so I'm trying to share. Before you try to tell me that it's Zuppa Toscana... it's not. 😁

The ingredients are (mostly) in the picture: 

• 32 oz broth (vegetable or chicken)
• potatoes (whatever kind, I used the little ones for less cutting 😏, cut to bite/spoon size)
• a can of cannellini beans (drained and rinsed)
• 1 lb ground sausage (mild or hot. I wanted turkey, but this was available.)
• a thing of mushrooms (rinsed and chopped)
• half an onion chopped (I used sweet, you do you.)
• kale, chopped (I used kale salad because it was on sale 🤷)
• 1-2 T olive oil
• garlic chopped/minced
• 1 C half and half
• about 3 C water 

In a pan, get the sausage cooking. Low to medium heat. Keep chopping/breaking it up. 

In a large pot add 1-2 T olive oil, chopped onions. Give it a couple of minutes until the onions start sweating. Add in the mushrooms, stir it up (little darlin'). Give it another couple of minutes. Add in the garlic. 3-4 cloves? I don't know, measure with you heart.

Once the onions look a little translucent, add the potatoes and then the broth.

Bring to a boil for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Add in the cooked sausage, kale, half and half and water.

Stir it up, says Bob Marley.

Simmer on low until ready.

Ladle into a bowl and salt/pepper to taste. Serve with warm crusty bread. This was a take and bake baguette and was quite tasty with it. If you're a good bread baker, maybe sourdough?! Let me know what you do with it.

Recommendation: drain the grease from the sausage before adding. You can see above the grease. 😖After being in the fridge overnight, this is what it looked like after taking the hardened grease off the top then warming.

Soup is cool (well, hot, but you get it...) because you can add water to make more. Notice how much seasoning or flavor was added. The majority of the flavor comes from the sausage. Keep that in mind when you're grabbing it at the store... no ground pork, turkey, chicken, lamb or beef... you need it to be sausage. Turkey sausage would make this healthier, but it wasn't available.

This soup is hearty and filling but doesn't feel heavy. I hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think!

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