Chicken Sausage Kale Soup

I need to start this post off with a confession…

That photo above isn’t the soup I made, but it’s visually stunning and a close approximation for a soup that I made recently that was just so delicious that I need to share the recipe here even though I didn’t take a photo of it.

The weather has been rainy and cold lately here in the Bay Area. Add to the weather cold a delightful sickness cold that I conveniently contracted heading into the long Thanksgiving weekend and you can imagine that I was a prime candidate for a delicious, homemade soup. After dance class last Saturday, I headed into Trader Joe’s with a vague recipe in mind loosely based on this one from the New York Times, but with so many modifications that I just need to share the recipe cleanly with you all here.

It was GOOD and so healing. I hope you make it and enjoy!

Ingredients:

• Italian or spicy chicken sausage, casings removed. You could absolutely use pork sausage if you prefer that.
• A whole yellow onion, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon of Butter
• 5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 Russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
• As much Lacinto Kale as you want. I used about a half a bag.
• 2 containers (64 oz total) of Chicken Broth
• Parmesan rind
• Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder to taste
• 2 tomatoes, chopped

Directions:

1. Cook your sausage for a couple of minutes over medium-high heat alone in a big soup pan until it starts to brown.
2. Add the onions and let them brown along with the sausage. Once they stop releasing their juices, add butter and continue to brown.
3. Add the garlic to the mix. Brown, brown, brown.
4. Throw in the potatoes. You guessed it. Let it brown. Add some salt, pepper and garlic. We want to build in the flavor, so just add a little bit at a time.
5. Once the potatoes have started to soften, add the kale. More browning. Once it all feels like the raw bite has worn off of the potatoes and kale, add the chicken broth.
6. Integrate the chicken broth and scrape off all the good bits from the bottom of the pain. Add the parmesan rinds. Turn the heat down to low and allow the soup to simmer for about an hour.
7. About fifteen minutes before you want to eat your soup, add the tomatoes. You might think that the tomatoes will get mushy and gross and thus be tempted to skip them. Add them anyway. They take the soup over the top.
8. Taste and add more salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. Get it really tasty.
9. Serve with fresh grated parmesan on top if you have it and a slice or two of crusty, buttered bread.

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