Here’s a wonderfully warming soup for a cold Winter’s day. Once you’ve prepped the ingredients, there’s not much you have to do for several hours. It’s made even easier if you buy bulk sausage, so that you don’t have to meddle with removing casings. And if spicy is not your thing, go ahead and use mild Italian or turkey sausage.
With lots of super-flavorful turkey stock leftover, we used that as the base, ramping up the overall deliciousness! Serve with a slice of crusty garlic bread toasted under the broiler.
Slow-Cooker Sausage and Kale Minestrone
Ingredients
- 12 oz. spicy Italian sausage, casings removed
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped (2 cups)
- 1 large carrot, chopped (1 cup)
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- 6 cups chicken or turkey stock
- 2 14.5 oz. cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 15 oz. can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 1 cup uncooked ditalini pasta
- 5 oz. baby kale leaves, roughly chopped
Directions
- Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high. Add the sausage to the skillet, and cook, stirring to crumble with a wooden spoon, 4 minutes.
- Add the onions, carrots, and celery to the skillet; cook, stirring occasionally, until the sausage is browned and the vegetables are lightly caramelized, about 6 minutes.
- Add 1 cup of the stock; cook 1 minute, stirring and scraping to loosen the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet.
- Transfer the sausage mixture to a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker. Stir in the tomatoes, beans, salt, 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper, and the remaining 5 cups stock. Cover and cook on LOW until the vegetables are tender, about 2 hours and 30 minutes.
- Stir in the pasta; cover and cook on LOW until the pasta is al dente, about 1 hour.
- Stir in the kale and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls, and serve hot.
Recipe from Cooking Light
Accounting for Taste 