It never ceases to amaze me how few ingredients you need to create a really rich, hardy, stick to your ribs, mmm mmmm I gotta have more kind of soup! Like the best of peasant comfort food, White Bean, Kale and Sausage Soup takes humble ingredients and transforms them into bowls of steaming satisfaction!
To begin, let’s chat a bit about the sausage. Any smoked sausage (think kielbasa or andouille) will work well in this soup. (I used andouille sausage in this batch and it was delicious.) And if neither of those really appeal to you, Italian Sausage would work equally well. If you are wanting/needing to make this soup gluten free, please read the package labels carefully or use a reputable app to scan their bar code. Gluten can find its way into crazy places, including sausage!
The first step in making this soup is getting a nice brown crust on your sausage coins. It’s tempting to skip this step and just get on with things….but please resist this temptation! That brown crust=flavor that you won’t want to miss. It takes a little doing to brown each piece, but trust me, it’s worth it!
Beyond browning the sausage, the only other bit of prep work is the mincing, dicing and chopping of some veggies. Oh, and the trimming that the kale will need, meaning you will want to cut the stems which tend to be woody and bitter away from the leaves. They can then be chopped to the desired size. There are lots of different kale varieties. I tend to gravitate towards Lacinato Kale (also known as Tuscan, Italian, Dinosaur, Palm Tree and perhaps other names!) because it is usually very tender and I just like the look of it! But there are no right answers here, any kale will work in this soup.
Once you have everything combined you simply let the soup cook by bringing it to just boiling and then allow it to simmer for 30-40 minutes. How easy is that?
Soups On!! If you are lucky, you will have leftovers as this soup will be even better the next day….alternatively, one could plan ahead and make it in advance, but that’s asking a lot!
White Bean, Kale and Sausage Soup
Ingredients
- 1 pound Smoked Sausage*, cut into 1/4" coins ensure it is gluten free if needed!
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
- 1 large onion, diced (about 2 1/2 cups total)
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 large carrots (cut into 1/2" coins-about 1 1/2 cups total)
- 2 cans cannellini beans (15 oz each)
- 2 quarts chicken broth
- 1 piece Parmesan Reggiano rind (about 2"x2") optional**
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (or 1 teaspoon dried)
- 1 bunch kale (about 8 oz/4-5 cups chopped)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
Instructions
- In an 8-quart stock pot heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil on medium high heat. Once heated, place the sausage in the pan and brown nicely on both sides, about 3-4minutes per side. Remove sausage from pan with slotted spoon to a paper-towel lined plate and allow to drain. Discard all but 1 tablespoon of remaining grease.
- Add remaining olive oil to pan, reheat to medium high and saute onion until just turning translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Add minced garlic and cook for another minute, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add carrots and saute for 3-4 minutes
- Add broth, beans, parmesan rind, rosemary, kale, sausage, salt and pepper. Bring soup to just boiling, then lower temperature. Simmer (covered) for about 30-40minutes.
- Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and some grated parmesan.
love your choice of Hemplers sausage—they are a Bellingham family company