Sausage, Kale and Quinoa Soup
This sausage kale and quinoa soup recipe yields big (no—HUGE) flavor! Instead of using standard pasta or potato in this Italian-inspired soup, we opted for quinoa. It’s filling and nutritious.
Control the heat by using a mild- to medium-hot Italian sausage then spice it up using crushed red pepper. The sausage tends to intensify during the cooking process, and the crushed red pepper allows you to add heat rather than getting stuck with a dish that’s too spicy to enjoy.
Our sausage, kale and quinoa soup tastes great with rustic bread and is superb on day two!
Sausage, Kale and Quinoa Soup Recipe
Brothy, hearty and packed with flavor—this sausage, kale and quinoa soup recipe is the perfect comfort food staple during cold-weather months!
Ingredients
Yield: 6 -8 servings
- 1 lb ground Italian sausage, mild or hot, casings left on and thinly sliced
- 2 small strips bacon, chopped(optional)
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 medium carrots, thinly sliced on the diagonal
- 3 - 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa, any color
- 1/2 bunch kale, deveined and torn into 1" pieces
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- salt, or chicken bouillon to taste
- black pepper, or red pepper flakes to taste
Instructions
- Place soup pot over medium-high heat. Add Italian sausage and bacon then brown until cooked completely through, about 6–8 minutes. Remove sausage and bacon from pot and drain as much grease as possible into a heat proof container. Return pot to stove and reduce heat to medium.
- Measure 2 Tbsp fat back into pot and add diced onion and carrots. Cook for about 4–5 minutes until onions are translucent stirring occasionally. Add garlic then cook 1 additional minute.
- Sprinkle flour over onions and cook while stirring for one minute. Pour in chicken broth and scrape up any brown spots in bottom of pot. Bring to a boil then add uncooked quinoa. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 20 minutes or until quinoa is tender.
- Stir in reserved sausage and bacon. Add kale and let it simmer in the soup until it reaches desired tenderness—5 minutes for crisp-tender or about 5–10 minutes longer for softer kale.
- Stir in heavy cream, season to taste with salt (or chicken bouillon) and pepper of choice and serve.
Notes
You can use the standard curly kale or Tuscan kale, sometimes labeled as Cavolo Nero!
Calories: 373kcal, Carbohydrates: 15g, Protein: 19g, Fat: 25g, Saturated Fat: 10g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g, Monounsaturated Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 77mg, Sodium: 1374mg, Potassium: 202mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 2g
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