Sausage, Kale, and White Bean Soup

Ingredients:

1 tbsp Olive Oil

1 lb Chicken, Turkey, or Pork Italian Sausage*

1 medium Onion, diced

2 cloves Garlic, minced

2 tsp Italian Seasoning

1 tbsp Tomato Paste

4 cups Chicken Broth/Stock

2 cups + 3 tbsp Water (separated)

2-3 cups Kale, stems removed and roughly chopped

1 - 15 oz can Cannellini Beans

3 tbsp Corn Starch

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Red Pepper Flakes, to taste

Parmesan Cheese, for garnish

*Sometimes chicken sausage is hard to find, so any type of Italian sausage will do!

Instructions:

1. Heat oil over medium-high heat in dutch oven or large pot.

2. Add sausage and brown, breaking up as it cooks. If using pork sausage, drain off excess fat and return to pot.

3. Add onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and sauté 3-5 minutes until translucent.

4. Add italian seasoning, red pepper flakes (if using), and tomato paste, cook for a few minutes until tomato paste turns from bright red to copper colored.

5. Add chicken broth/stock and 2 cups of water and bring to a boil.

6. Add kale, reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer about 10 minutes.

7. Mix corn starch with 3 tbsp cold water and stir into soup and return to medium-high heat. Let boil for at least 1 minute to activate corn starch and soup will thicken slightly.

8. Lower heat to medium, gently stir in beans and season with additional salt and pepper, to taste.

9. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.

I prefer chicken sausage, but I can’t always find it so I grabbed turkey sausage. Also, my store sells kale washed and chopped in a bag. But for this purpose, I still needed to pull out any of the thick stems. The kale doesn’t cook long enough to soften these tough bits.

Sausage is browned, so add the onions, garlic, and some salt and pepper.

Cooking the tomato paste helps improve the depth of flavor. I find that it tastes less like tomato and more like savory umami flavor. That sounded very pretentious, I watch too many cooking shows. But it’s true!

Add the broth and water, scraping up any bits that caramelized on the bottom of the pot.

Add the kale. It’s hard to measure greens, but if you are a measurer and cook exactly by the recipe, you can add them to a glass measuring cup and press them down to measure 2-3 cups. Pictured here is 2 and 1/2 cups measured that way.

Add the cornstarch slurry and boil for at least 1 minute. You can see how much the kale has wilted down.

Add the beans, liquid and all. They just need to heat through and the soup is ready. Taste for seasoning and add salt and/or pepper, as needed.

Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top and dig in.