White Bean Sausage Soup

I threw this soup together with basically what I could find in our pantry this week.  It was a cold, rainy day and we had just gotten back into town from a funeral and it just seemed like a hearty hot soup kind of day.  I was actually pretty surprised at how yummy this turned out because it really didn’t require many ingredients but the flavor was SO very good.

I’m pretty sure recipes similar to this exist online and in doing a quick review, they use full fat or regular pork sausage.  I had turkey sausage crumbles on hand and honestly, there is no way I would have been able to tell the difference if I hadn’t made it myself.   Using the turkey sausage saves a ton of time, but also saves 221 calories, 387mg sodium and 16g fat/per serving.

This is a great low calorie recipe that came together within 40 minutes – easy and low cal?  Yup, my favorite kind of recipe!   It’s souper (Ha!) hearty, filled with heart-healthy beans, and antioxidant rich spinach – so GOOD for you!

Ingredients:

1T extra virgin olive oil

2 cups turkey sausage crumbles (I used Jimmy Dean)

1 medium potato, peeled and diced

1 carrot, peeled and diced

1 onion, diced

2-3 garlic cloves, minced (add as much or as little as you like)

1 bay leaf

2 cans white beans, drained (I had navy and black eyed peas on hand)

6 cups reduced sodium chicken broth

¼ tsp dried rosemary, chopped finely

¼ tsp dried thyme

¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

2 cups frozen spinach

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Additional option:  Shaved Parmesan topping

Preparation:

Heat oil in a soup pot or Dutch oven on high heat, adding garlic to sauté for about 1 minute.

Add sausage crumbles and red pepper flakes and stir until sausage begins to brown.

Add the potato, carrot, onion and bay leaf and stir.  Sauté for about 5 minutes until carrots begin to soften.

 

Add the beans, broth, herbs and spinach and stir.

Bring

to high simmer then reduce heat to med/low and simmer for about 25 minutes.

Top with shaved Parmesan if using.

A little bit spicy and a whole ‘lotta deliciousness!

Nutrition:

Serves 4

Calories 272 / Carbs 44g / Fat 4g / Protein 24g / Fiber 12g / Sodium 1982mg