Soup's On

I have a bit of a tradition going on in my kitchen that Monday night is soup night!

I don't remember exactly how or why this started, but I am a bit enamored with soups and all the different varieties, and over the years it has proven to be a handy way to start the week, especially as I like to make a large pot and then have enough leftovers for at least one more meal (and often more!) I like to have the second go of soup on Wednesdays, when we usually have evening plans: either prayer meeting, Ladies Night for me or Men's Meeting for Wesley. I have found that by switching up the sides a bit (cheese & crackers the first night, salad the second) you can keep meals interesting even if the main dish stays the same.

Over the summer this tradition seemed to be more of a drag than anything and there were times I deviated from soup just because I couldn't find one that looked good or that I had the ingredients for. And sometimes I just plain down didn't feel like dicing carrots & celery! For all their "one-pot simplicity" they can take a good deal of prep and a good many ingredients, depending on the recipe. I thought maybe it was time for a new Monday night tradition.

Now the weather is turning and with it my mood. Suddenly, soup sound good again and today I enjoyed the rituals of sauteing and slicing and simmering once more!

 I am sure it helped to actually wake up knowing what soup I was going to make! Planning ahead not only saved me that dreaded "what am I going to make for supper" question lurking at my heels, it also meant that I had picked up a few ingredients when I was at the store last week for the things that aren't necessarily staples (kale and bacon, for instance!)

This recipe comes from Taste of Home's Big Book of Soup, which was a bridal shower gift from one of my big sisters (best choice ever!!!) I have used the cookbook over & over again and it is probably at least partially responsible for my Monday-night soup tradition in the first place! I made this soup about 3 years ago and really liked it then, so I had a good deal of faith that we would enjoy it again, which we did!

Here's the recipe:

Sausage Kale Soup

1 pound uncooked Italian sausage links
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 bacon strip,diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups water
1 can (14.5 oz.) chicken broth
2 cups diced potatoes
2 cups thinly sliced fresh kale or spinach
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Place the sausage in an ungreased 15 in. by 10 in. by 1 in. baking pan; pierce casings. Bake at 300 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until fully cooked. Drain; set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, saute onion and bacon for 3 minutes or until onion is tender. Add garlic, saute for 1 minute. Add water, broth and potatoes; bring to a boil.

Reduce heat, cover & simmer for 20-minutes or until potatoes are tender. Cut sausages in half lengthwise, then into 1/4 inch slices. Add kale, cream and sausage to soup and heat through (do not boil.)
Yield: 8 servings (2 quarts)

Here are my thoughts & inevitable alterations:

I used turkey sausage links that I bought in bulk and froze last week. I didn't weigh the sausage before I froze it, just put 8 pieces to a bag, which is about what I would expect our family to eat for a meal. I am pretty sure this added up to more than the 1 pound the recipe called for, but nobody seemed to mind the meaty soup (least of all Wesley!) I also put two bacon strips in instead of one and didn't measure the onions, so maybe it was no wonder that I had to add some extra liquid in the end because it was looking more "stew" than "soup" after adding the kale & sausage!

Instead of using 2 cups of water and a can of chicken broth, I put a whole 32 oz. container (4 cups) of broth in (which was just a bit extra to begin with!) I didn't intend to use any water, but as said above, I needed some to make more broth in the end.

The heavy whipping cream was skimmed off the top of a half-gallon of milk sitting in the fridge since we buy raw milk from some dairy-farming friends at church. Handy!

I bought a rather large bag of kale since that's all I could find in the grocery store where I was doing my shopping. Out of  a 1 pound bag, I had a lot leftover since two cups of sliced kale really isn't all that much. I personally enjoy kale and it's very good in this soup as it's still a bit crisp,and not all wilty, when you eat it! I like the idea of kale as it sounds so very wholesome, but my repertoire of recipes that use it are pretty slim at this point, so I may need to do some experiments, which will be much to Gavin's chagrin, who peered into his bowl of soup with great suspicion and asked, "What's this GREEN stuff?"

After supper I made the mistake of sitting down to work on this post before clearing the table. Then I got a phone-call. Before I knew it, Parker had seized the opportunity to help himself to a large container of peanut butter that was sitting open on the table. Needless to say, the dishes waited even longer while he got a bath...

For some reason, the sight of a peanut butter man didn't upset me as much as it sometimes would! I told the person I was on the phone with about it and we had a good chuckle.

Maybe it was that bowl of comforting soup working it's magic!

I think I'll make it more often.