Sausage, Potato and Spinach Soup

The one thing that doesn’t bum me out about the weather turning colder is that it’s officially soup season.  I can live off of chicken soup, but I have been trying recipes for other kinds to shake things up.  For the past couple days, I have had a craving for some kind of soup with little bits of crumbled sausage.  I don’t know where I had it, but I just kept thinking about it; went on Pinterest and found this recipe.  While I waited for Jim to get home, I took a little sample without the spinach and cream, and it’s REALLY good even without it.  Definitely a fabulous soup to warm your belly and your soul as the nights get colder!

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 lb. Italian sausage, casing removed
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, diced
• ½ tsp. dried oregano
• ½ tsp. dried basil
• ½ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes, optional
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• (3) 14.5 oz. cans chicken broth
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 lb. red potatoes, diced
• ½ package of frozen cut spinach, defrosted
• ¼ cup heavy cream

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat.
2. Add Italian sausage and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the sausage as it cooks; drain excess fat, if any.
3. Stir in garlic, onion, oregano, basil and red pepper flakes.
4. Cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
5. Stir in chicken broth and bay leaf, and bring to a boil.
6. Add potatoes and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.
7. Stir in spinach, about 1-2 minutes.
8. Stir in heavy cream until heated through, about 1 minute
9. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
10. Serve immediately.

Modifications

• Original recipe called for spicy sausage – me and spicy is a hot night… my husband and spicy, not so much.  I went with regular Italian sausage (I won’t admit to the fact that the grocery store didn’t have it in stock anyway… really, I did it for my husband… I swear… oh, I did include the crushed red pepper.  I needed a LITTLE summin, and I actually thought it had a nice heat just as it was).
• The original recipe also called for 5 cups of chicken broth.  I had 14.5 oz cans of chicken broth and just used three, since I didn’t want to deal with measuring and saving anything over.  It doesn’t hurt anything.
• I also used regular potatoes and left the skins on… can’t tell the difference.
• I didn’t have fresh baby spinach, so I just used ½ a package of defrosted cut spinach.
• As I mentioned above, I took a small bowl tasting while I waited for my husband to come home.  I was waiting to add the spinach and cream since it says to serve immediately, and it tasted great without it, if you didn’t want to add the calories from the cream (according to the blog that I found this recipe, it’s only 330 calories per serving anyway).
• Personally, I didn’t think it needed any salt and pepper.

Adapted from the Damn Delicious blog