Bad Weather Chicken Sausage, Bean and Kale Soup

Posted: January 10, 2024 | Author: dana lange | Filed under: Uncategorized |Leave a comment

Last night as I was driving home from Raleigh around 9:30 I came upon an unmanned road block on Hope Valley Road alerting me that the road was closed. It wasn’t lit and it was just over a hill so I am happy I was not going very fast. We had terrible weather yesterday and I was just happy I was able to turn around and go back home via Garrett rd. Russ was in flight on his way home from NYC so I texted him about the road block.

Yesterday’s cold and rainy day got me in a soup kind of mood. There was no time for cooking yesterday, but today I had a bit of time and thought Russ might like me to actually go to the store and cook something fresh for him. It worked out well to make a soup in advance as I had an evening meeting.

My original idea was a white bean, sausage and kale soup. At Trader Joe’s I found some fresh chicken sausages and thought they would be a healthy option. The only issue was they did not have many spices in them. So I amped up the spices in the soup to mirror the ones I might find in pork sausage.

1 lb of chicken sausage, taken out of the casing

2 T. Olive oil

1 large sweet onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic mashed

2 carrots, chopped

4 Yukon gold potatoes about the sized of duck eggs, diced 1/2 inch

2T. Smoked paprika

2 t.ground Fennel

1 t. Ground sage

1 t. Thyme

1t. Garlic powder

1t. Onion powder

1 t. Cayenne pepper

1 Bay leaf

Black pepper

3 T. Knorr chicken bullion powder

6.cups of water

2 cans drained great northern beans

12 cups of chopped de-stemmed kale

3 T. Corn starch

3/4 c. cream

Put the olive oil in stock pot, add sausage, onion and garlic and cook on medium heat stirring often for five minutes. Add the carrots and potatoes and all the spices and stir. Add the chicken bullion powder and water and bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. Cook for fifteen minutes.

Add the beans and the kale cook another fifteen minutes. Put four tablespoons of the liquid from the pot in a cup and add the corn starch to that, stir making a slurry. Add back to the soup pot and stir. This will thicken the soup slightly.

Add the cream and just heat through. Taste for spices and add anything needed.

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