Kale and White Bean Soup with Vegetarian Sausage

While the rest of the world is welcoming the fall weather back into their lives, Arizona is still hanging out in the triple digit weather.

But I have been craving soup like its my job.  Crank up the air conditioning, lets snuggle up to a warm bowl of soup.

I’m just happy no one around to witness to my soup making endeavor. 

I’ve mentioned this time and time again, but I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my pants chef.  I rarely have everything out I need, which allows for inopportune trips to the pantry or fridge to search for that ingredient I forget and now can’t find.  But everything usually works out.

Usually.

Thank goodness this soup did.

Kale and White Bean Soup with Vegetarian Sausage

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 links vegetarian sausage, my favorite is Field Roast Apple Sage Sausage
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 5 cups of vegetable broth
• Salt/Pepper to taste
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• pinch of crushed red pepper
• 1 bunch of kale
• 1 15 oz can of white beans

First, cook the vegetarian sausage in a soup pot.

Yeah… I’m aware that doesn’t look very appetizing and many an inappropriate comment could be made, but lets act like civilized human beings.

Note to self, veggie sausage doesn’t crumble the way real sausage does, so next time, I might want to crumble it  beforehand.  Otherwise, a lot of time and energy will be spent stabbing the sausage with a wooden spoon.  Stab, stab, stab.

Once the vegetarian sausage gets browned, remove from the pot and set aside.  I added a bit more olive oil and plopped in the onions to cook till they were translucent.

During your free time, feel free to prep the kale.  If you chose to stab your finger with the knife, make sure to do it hard enough to yelp and scare your dog, but not so hard that you break the skin. 

Just words of advice.

So kale.

Wash thoroughly and cut out the tough stems.  Stab finger.  Yelp.  Scare dog.  Notice you are not bleeding.  Continue.

Chop it up.

About this time is a good idea to remember to chop up the garlic.  Except you’ll notice the kale is taking up the whole cutting board.

Shove over kale, make room for garlic.

Keep in mind the onions are cooking this whole time, and probably starting to get annoyed they are being ignored.

Toss in the garlic and sausage and let cook for about 30 seconds (or closer to a minute if you cook like I cook).

Next, pour in the vegetable broth.

Use a wooden spoon to scrap all the delicious bits off the bottom of the pot.  That there’s flavor!

Bring the mixture to a simmer.  While this is going, you might want to open your can of beans.  In my case, it took me 10 minutes to open one can.  I think we need a new can opener.  I now have a blister.

Siouxsie also thought she was going to get some food. 

Every time the can opener comes out.  Every. Time. And she eats dry food.  I don’t get it.

I’m going to let you know I drained the beans in a sink full of dirty dishes.

I’m classy like that.  I could have lied.  I did eventually put the dishes in the dishwasher and proceeded to take a staged picture.

Listen, cooking’s hard enough without having to do dishes in the middle of the whole shebang.

Add the kale to the broth and let cook for about 10 minutes before adding the beans.  Once the beans are added, let the soup simmer away for about 15-20 minutes or until the kale is tender.

After that, the next thing to do is eat.

Slurp.  This soup is out of this world.  The kale is still chewy and flavorful, just what I was craving.  The beans and sausage are so flavorful and the cayenne pepper gives the soup a subtle kick to wake up the senses. 

I’m in love.