Tuscan Bean Soup with Chicken Sausage, Kale and Other Veggies
This Tuscan Bean Soup features a hearty base of cannellini beans (or Great Northern beans), chicken sausage, and kale, all simmered in a flavorful broth with a soffritto (onion, carrots, and celery), tomatoes, and a generous helping of fresh herbs like rosemary and parsley. Garlic adds another layer of depth, and the soup is easily customizable with other vegetables you have on hand.
Equipment
- Mini Food Processor
- Soup Pot
Ingredients
- 2-4 links Italian Sausage - I used Chicken Sausage - Feta and Spinach from Sprouts
- 1 Bunch Kale - Destemmed and Rough Chopped
- ½ Large Onion - Diced
- 3 Carrots - Peeled and Diced
- 4 Cloves Garlic - Peeled
- 3¼ C Cannellini Beans - Or Great Northern
- 2 C Grape Tomatoes - Diced
- Dash Red Pepper Flakes
- 4 C Chicken Broth - or Bone Broth
- 1 Tbl Fresh Rosemary - Minced
- 1 Tbl Fresh Parsley - Minced
- 2 tsp Fresh Lemon Juice
- 1 Tbl Fresh Sage - Optional but may be a nice addition. I didn't have any.
Instructions
- Organize your Ingredients. Don't forget the Carrots !!!
- Remove Casing from your Sausage.
- Peel and chop your soffrito. (Celery / Onion / Carrot)
- Place ½ of your beans into a mini food processor with the peeled garlic and a cup or so of the broth. Puree. (Can also do by hand with a fork mashing the beans. You will need to mince the garlic.)
- Put some olive oil into the soup pot and add the soffrito and sausage as well as some S&P. Cook until the sausage is done and the soffrito is somewhat soft. ~5 - 8 minutes or so.
- While the sausage & soffrito are cooking - mince some of your rosemary and parsley. Chop the tomatoes.
- Drain some of the grease off if you used pork sausage and have more than a TBL or two of grease in the pot. (I left my grease in - as it was Chicken Sausage and there wasn't too much of it....)
- Add the broth and the bean puree and the remaining beans to the pot. Add some S&P. Add a couple shakes of hot peppers.
- Add tomatoes and herbs. Use only a portion of the herbs - stir it in, let it cook a bit and taste. See how much more of the herbs you want to add. I did about 1 Tbl fresh parsley and a scant Tbl of fresh Rosemary. Consider some sage if you have any. (Reminder: 1 Tbl Fresh herbs == 1 tsp of dried...)
- After the soup cooks a bit ~15 - 20 min - bring the temp up to just about boiling and add in the Kale. Turn down the temp on the soup and let the Kale wilt and mingle with all the other veg.
- Once Kale is to your desired tenderness, squeeze in a bit of fresh lemon juice. Just a bit. (~2 tsp) Stir and Taste. Is it perfect ? Maybe more S&P or Lemon Juice ?
- Serve warm to your friends and family. Would be awesome with a nice side of Ciabatta, Baguette or Focaccia.
Notes
Note - I used Bone Broth which adds more calories than is reflected in the nutritional information. It also adds more depth of flavor. Consider buying Bone Broth.
As you may have seen in the pic - I used only 2 chicken sausages, as that is what I had. Increasing the sausage to 4 would be good to up the protein in this meal.
If you are adding potatoes - 1-2 diced - you'd add it when you are adding the broth - and you'd probably need an extra C or two of broth - the soup gets thick and the starch in the potatoes themselves would make it even thicker. Also (obviously?) you'd need more salt. 🤣
A nice topping for this would be a couple of shreds of parm cheese !
Nutrition
Calories: 182kcalCarbohydrates: 26gProtein: 14gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 23mgSodium: 1178mgPotassium: 456mgFiber: 8gSugar: 5gVitamin A: 8011IUVitamin C: 46mgCalcium: 167mgIron: 7mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!