Perfect Winter Soup.

Is it technically winter? Maybe not in some parts of the country but I feel like it is here! Observe my car this morning:

It’s kind of amazing that there’s snow on the ground here but in Phoenix last week it was still in the 90’s. So, summer there winter here? Since it’s a brisk 27 out right now, there’s nothing better to warm you up than hot coffee, cocoa, or soup. Unfortunately cocoa and coffee don’t make a well rounded meal so I chose soup for dinner last night.

I found this amazing recipe on For the Love of Cooking’s website. It was for a vegetable soup with sausage and white beans. I love any soup (or anything else really) that involves white beans so I was all about it! The original recipe called for turkey sausage but oddly enough I couldn’t find any so I used a semi-local pork sausage.

First, I cooked the sausage and onion for a couple minutes then added garlic. I love the smell of garlic cooking..nothing better!

After the onions and sausage cooked for a bit, I added the carrots, canned tomatoes, salt and pepper, italian seasoning (she used oregano), and chicken broth. She also added celery but I don’t love celery so I just added more carrot.

Once those ingredients are added, let the soup simmer for 2 hours. It does take a while, but if you prep in advance it’s really easy. While the soup was cooking, I baked some sweet potatoes for a side dish.

I skinned two sweet potatoes then chopped them up. I mixed the potatoes with 1 tsp of cinnamon, 2 tsp of maple syrup, and 1 tbsp of coconut oil then laid them out on a baking sheet covered in foil and cooked for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.  I took them out around 20 minutes and flipped them over, then continued to bake.

After the soup was done cooking, I added fresh spinach and 2 cans of white kidney beans (she also added fresh basil but the store didn’t have any). That’s it! I sprinkled a little mozzarella cheese on top and served it up.

This turned out really good! It wasn’t quite as healthy with the pork sausage, but I tried to eat mostly veggies and beans with a couple bites of meat. It’s a really hearty, filling soup; I definitely recommend it! I love soups because there’s always leftovers the next day. We’ll need it today too because it’s a cold one out there!

 

What’s your favorite kind of soup?