Sausage And White Bean Soup

If you need a really quick dinner to start the week, make this sausage and white bean soup. You can use hot or mild Italian sausage, I used mild. I like to finish the soup with fresh spinach or kale and top it with lots of parmesan cheese. This soup is so easy and so comforting, perfect on a Fall evening.

Ingredients:

1 pound Italian sausage
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 15-oz cans white beans
1 bay leaf
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
Red pepper flakes, to taste
2-4 cups chicken stock, depending on if you want a soup or stew consistency
2 big handfuls fresh spinach or kale
lots of shaved parmesan

Directions:

In a large pot over medium-high heat, cook the sausage until slightly browned and cooked through. remove the sausage with a slotted spoon and set aside in a dish.

Pour some of the grease out of the pot leaving just enough to coat the bottom. Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 5-8 minutes add the garlic and cook 1 minute.

Open the cans of beans, drained and rinse just one of them. Add the undrained can of beans juice and all to the pot and cook for a few minutes until the liquid is reduced.

Add the rinsed beans, thyme, bay leaf, red pepper flakes, chicken stock and the cooked sausage to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Add the spinach right before you’re ready to eat and cook until just wilted.

Check for seasoning and add salt and more red pepper flakes if needed.

Do not salt the soup before tasting first. The white beans are salted and since we are adding a full can with the juices, the soup should be salty enough from that. Plus, the chicken stock and sausage are salty too. If you taste it and feel it needs more, add a pinch of kosher salt.

Serve with lots of shaved parmesan and a pinch of red pepper flakes. This beer bread is probably a good idea too!