It feels like autumn just came out of nowhere. We had warm days and then, bam! I had to dig out the kids' jackets to wear to the bus stop. When the air becomes chilly, there's nothing like a hearty soup to warm you up.
This was my first time making sausage, bean, and kale soup and I was very happy with the results. I adapted the Spicy Sausage Kale Bean Soup from Savory Sweet Life by Alice Currah. (I previously tried the Spiced Pumpkin Waffles from the cookbook.) This soup was surprisingly easy.
The recipe calls for spicy Italian sausage, the kind where you remove the casing and cook like ground meat. I had a coupon for the new Hillshire Gourmet Creations Sausage. I sent hubby to the store and he chose the sweet Italian style with peppers and mozzarella. It was a good shortcut for me to use already cooked sausage.
I didn't cook the sausage with the onions and garlic like the directions called for since my sausage was already cooked. After the onions softened (became transluscent), I added the sausage and browned it for extra flavor. Then I followed the recipe as it was written.
Well, except that it called for sweet potatoes and I had 3 butternut squash languishing on my shelf. I love butternut squash but they are a lot of work to prep. I guess it was probably good I took a shortcut on the sausage then. I only used about 1.5 cups of the squash (cubed). The rest I peeled, cubed, and froze. I'll probably roast or puree that for another meal.
The recipe calls for 2 cups of heavy cream. Sounds really rich and decadent, doesn't it? I didn't have heavy cream so I made a mix of whole milk and whole fat plain yogurt. It separated a little when I added it to the soup (even then I slowly added warm liquid from the pot to bring it to the same temperature). You could barely tell after I stirred it up. After simmering for 15 minutes, I added the kale (precut and prewashed from the store, thank you very much). Then simmered it for another 15 more minutes.
I LOVED this soup. With some crusty French baguette on the side, it was delicious. Since I used milk and yogurt instead of cream, it didn't feel heavy or too rich. I'm definitely adding this soup to my repertoire. Because I have 2 more butternut squash from my CSA. I will have to try out more recipes from Savory Sweet Life by Alice Currah.
The Hillshire Gourmet Creations was very tasty. I think that the mozarella bits in the Italian style got lost in this soup, but would be perfect if it was pan fried or sauteed with pasta. I definitely want to try their other flavors. Want to win some Hillshire Gourmet Creations coupons?
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I received Hillshire Farms coupons in order to review their sausage (that sounds naughty, doesn't it?) No compensation was received for the review. Affiliate links are included in this post. My Cup of Creativiti-Tea is not responsible for lost, late, or misdirected shipping. Winner must respond within 24 hours to claim their prize.
