My family has been making this delicious Sausage, Beans and Kale Soup for years now. My mom first made it after falling in love with Zuppa Toscana at The Olive Garden. We’ve loved it many times over since then, but have been creating it at home with fresh ingredients from scratch. And I know “fresh” and “from scratch” many times translate into “I don’t have time to create from scratch so I will scratch this from tonight’s menu toot-sweet!”
This recipe tastes like it should take a lot of work because of the rich flavor, but requires just 10 minutes prep time and then the ingredients do the rest of the work in the simmer. As I’m writing this, it’s hard not to change my menu for tonight’s dinner right now and create this again because just telling you about it has me craving it.
This soup offers great variety with the vegetables, sausage and legumes. The flavors and texture are so satisfying, you only need a nice hunk of rustic bread for the perfect comfort meal. Super nutritious and complete, Sausage, Beans and Kale Soup is perfect for taking over to a sick friend or new mom. Be sure to take a copy of the recipe with you.
Sausage, Beans and Kale Soup
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons light oil like olive, peanut or safflower
- 1 pound Italian sausage of choice - I like to mix sweet and hot. I have used chicken and pork with equal success
- 1 medium onion, rough chopped
- 2 large carrots, rough chopped
- 1 large potato, sliced thin (peeled or leave peels on)
- 1 or 2 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped (juice should be squeezed out)
- 1 or 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 cans drained white beans, divided (cannellini, baby limas, or white kidney)
- 4 cups fresh kale, chopped
- 2 quarts 8 cups chicken broth
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Shaved Parmesan cheese enough to top each bowl to liking
Instructions
- Have all your vegetables chopped and ready to go. In a stock pot heated to medium heat, add the oil and sausage. Cook, stirring occasionally until browned on the outside.
- Add onion, carrot, potato, tomato, garlic and bay leaf.
- Add 2 cans of the white beans and stir. Before adding the third can of beans, mash the beans with a fork into what will look like a rough paste. Now, add these mashed beans into the pot. This is step will help thicken the soup.
- Add the chicken broth and stir until all the mashed beans have "dissolved" into the broth.
- Raise the heat to medium-high and just let start to boil. Reduce heat to simmer and let cook for as little as 20 minutes but this soup just gets better the longer it simmers. If you have time to cook this longer, cover with a lid so the broth does not simmer down and cook for 45 minutes to one hour. I have let this simmer for almost 2 hours before with perfect results.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Now add the kale and let soup continue to simmer for 15-25 minutes, just depending on the time you have. Note: Add the amount of kale to your liking. Start with 2 cups and add more as seems right for your taste.
- Serve the soup with shaved Parmesan cheese and a nice dense loaf of bread.
- Leftovers refrigerate well up to 2 days.
Loosely adapted from Rachael Ray Sausage, Beans and Broccoli Rabe Soup
This is just about the only recipe I make that my husband will eat as leftovers. We love it!
Rachele, that is awesome! Thanks for letting me know. You made my weekend. 🙂
I made this soup a few weeks ago and it was a huge hit! I didn’t change a thing. Will be making it again this weekend….thank you!
In the recipe this calls for a total of 8 cups of Kale. Is this correct? Just want to make sure before I buy ingredients. Sounds great.
Susan, I’m so glad you asked me about this. The original recipe does call for 8 cups. But the last few times I’ve made this delicious soup, I’ve only added about 4 cups and I think it’s better with less. I’ll go in and edit the recipe right now. Let me know what you think of it!