Smoked Sausage Soup with Potatoes and Kale
Hearty, creamy soup loaded with smoky sausage and vegetables.
Servings cups soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- drizzle of olive oil 2-3 teaspoons
- 1 onion, small-medium diced
- 1 carrot, large sliced in half length-wise and and then sliced thin
- 4 cloves garlic finely minced
- 7 ounces smoked sausage see note
- 1 ½ lbs potatoes see note
- 6 cups chicken broth could substitute vegetable or even beef
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 ½ teaspoon oregano dried
- 1 12 ounce can evaporated milk
- 1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch
- optional: big handful freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 2-3 cups kale, finely chopped 2 - 4 large kale leaves; can substitute fresh spinach
Instructions
- Heat a large stock pot to medium heat. Once hot, drizzle in a few teaspoons of olive oil. Add carrots and onion and saute for about 3 minutes until they start to soften. Add garlic and saute for about 30 seconds and then push all veggies to one side of the pot. Add sausage and cook for a few minutes to start to brown then mix everything in pot together.
- Add potatoes, broth, salt, pepper, and oregano and stir to combine. Simmer soup until potatoes are soft, about 15 minutes.
- While soup is simmering, prep your kale. Pull or cut the leaves off of the thick stems and discard stems. Hold the kale in a bunch and thinly slice and chop it into small pieces. If you're using spinach, it isn't necessary to chop finely since spinach wilts so well. I finely chop the kale since it retains more heartiness in the soup.
- Put cornstarch in a small bowl and whisk in approximately equal amount of evaporated milk. (Totally okay to eyeball here, it doesn't need to be exact! Just pour a little from your can.) Whisk until smooth.
- When your potatoes are tender, pour the remainder of the evaporated milk into the soup, along with the cornstarch slurry. Stir and set to a low simmer for 2-3 minutes until soup starts to thicken. (If you would like your soup even thicker, you are welcome to add another ½ tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water at this point.)
- Add chopped kale and simmer for about 30 seconds and then turn off heat and put a lid on the pot and let sit for about 5 minutes. (If using spinach, simply add spinach and remove pot from heat).
- Before serving, stir in parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper if needed.
Notes
- Note on sausage: I feel like sausage can be confusing. The type of sausage we’re talking about here is fully cooked smoked sausage that comes in a link. It’s the kind that is horse-shoe shaped and found packaged in the meat department. The kind that I use specifically is this Private Selection Smoked Sausage (which is a Kroger brand) and I get the Garlic variety. There are many leaner options, like a turkey kielbasa, which would work, but I do feel like the flavor won’t be quite the same since a lot of the amazing flavor, seasoning, and richness comes from simmering that sausage in the soup. But feel free to experiment with whatever you like. I use half the package for this recipe (freeze the other half to make this again, or use it for another recipe), but you can certainly add more if you like your soup meatier. The sausage is one of the main flavoring components of this soup and one of the reasons it’s a bit of a shortcut ingredient. It’s already fully cooked and you need very few seasonings in the recipe because the sausage adds so much flavor.
- Note on potatoes: Feel free to use any variety of potato you like. I love the little 1.5 lb bags of petite gold potatoes.
- Store finished, cooled soup in an airtight container in the fridge and consume within 3-4 days for best results.
- Feel free to freeze in individual portions for a quick lunch or dinner on busy days.
- Nutritional information was calculated without Parmesan cheese.
Nutrition
Calories: 193kcal, Carbohydrates: 20g, Protein: 8g, Fat: 9g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 4g, Cholesterol: 28mg, Sodium: 858mg, Potassium: 521mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 6g, Vitamin A: 1537IU, Vitamin C: 20mg, Calcium: 134mg, Iron: 1mg
Calories: 193kcal
Cost: $8
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