Insanely Good Soup

[prosodic]

AKA Italian Sausage and White Bean Soup

Thanks to those who offered up suggestions as to soup additives. We just ate dinner and this soup was so freaking delicious.

So...the recipe (roughly...as always, I didn't measure ingredients):

- 5 Italian sausage links, casings removed (I used Foster Farms mild turkey Italian sausage)
- minced garlic and onion flakes to taste (or use fresh onion if you have it)
- Worchestershire sauce to taste
- 1/2 pound Great Northern beans, soaked overnight (by all means, use canned if you have it)
- 3 cups chicken broth (or in my case, 1 can chicken broth and about 1-1/4 c. water with a bouillon cube)
- tomato paste (roughly 3 TBSP.)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 lb. bag frozen sliced carrots
- 2 tsp. Italian seasoning (I used Pampered Chef's sundried tomato and herb seasoning)
- fresh pepper

Brown sausage with garlic and onion flakes until cooked through. Because my sausage had so little fat, I had to cook it in a bit of olive oil. Add 2 generous splashes of Worchesterhire, or however much suits you.

While meat is browning, add all other ingredients to a 5-6 quart slow cooker. (I actually added the tomato paste to the soup after it was already cooking, but ideally, it should be added before.) Once meat is browned, drain (if needed) and add to slow cooker. Set slow cooker to low and cook for 7-8 hours.

About half an hour before the soup was ready, I made cornbread (just sounded good to me, and it actually went well with the soup, I thought). I also cooked some small seashell pasta.

I added some thawed chopped spinach to my soup bowl (from a bag of store-bought frozen spinach) and some julienned sundried tomatoes. When the soup was ready, I ladled it over the spinach and tomatoes, added the amount of pasta I wanted, stirred and then sprinkled parmesan over the top. Then I served with buttered cornbread.

So goooooooooood. Oh my God.

By the way, this makes pretty thick soup, so if you want it soupier, add more liquid. I'm very happy with it.

Oh, and don't forget to remove the bay leaves before serving!

Comments

[katzies.livejournal.com]

That sounds good. I think I'll try it next week, especially because I'm having to fight for every gram of protein in my diet right now.