Step By Step Guide: Sausage & Spinach Soup

Whenever the air gets really crisp and cold, I feel the urge to make soups and stews. This recipe can be served as a soup or stew, depending on how you like it served.

Recipe Name: Sausage and Spinach Soup
Source: Me!

Ingredients:

• 3 Sausages (Italian - Sweet or Hot)
• Fresh Spinach
• Fresh Mushrooms
• 1 Sweet Onion
• 2 Cloves of garlic
• Beef Stock
• Large can of diced tomatos
• Dried Basil
• Dried Oregano
• Dried Rosemary
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Romano cheese

Directions:

1. I decided to use organic chicken sausage (hot italian style) from whole foods. But, any sausage type will do. First, you should remove the sausage from it's casing.

2. Rather than cooking the soup in a large stock pot, I cooked mine in a slow cooker. Either will do. If you are cooking it in a stock pot, then you should brown the sausage in the stock pot itself. If you are using a slow cooker, then you should brown the sausage in a non-stick fry pan.

3. While the sausage is browning, grab your onion and garlic cloves. Roughly chop them both.

4. Once the sausage is finished browning, remove it from the pan. If you are using a slow cooker, place the sausage in there. If you are using the stock pot, place it on a plate or a paper towel to absorb some of the fat drippings. Put a tablespoon of olive oil in the pan and put the onions in there to sweat until they are slightly transluscent. Once they are, add the mushrooms and garlic. Cook for about 2 minutes more. Add salt and pepper to taste

4. Pour the contents of the pan into the slow cooker, If you are using the stock pot, just add the sausage back in.

4. Grab your canned tomato's and beef stock. Drain about 1/4 of the tomato juice from the can and pour the remainder into the pot. Add two containers of beef stock.

5. Grab your dried spices and add a pinch of each to the soup. If you have a bay leaf available, feel free to throw that in as well. Let it cook for a couple hours. The longer the better when is comes to soup.

6. About 30 minutes prior to serving, add your spinach in. Once you do that and let the spinach cook, your soup is ready to be served! You can serve it over pasta or have it plain! make sure you have some crusty bread handy so you can sop up that soupy goodness.