Today was “clean out the refrigerator day” and I found some kale that we purchased on a walk to the local amish farm. I was sure that it was going to be bad but to my surprise it wasn’t wilted and would make a great component for tonight’s dinner. I started to look for other complimentary items like sun-dried tomatoes, golden potatoes (an ingredient leftover from Thanksgiving preparations) and heavy whipping cream. I decided to make a version of Den’s favorite soup, Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana. I located some country sausage from the freezer. I prefer the flavor over Italian sausages. I chose to peel my potatoes since they were a little green. My sun dried tomatoes were packed in oil so I dried them off prior to adding them to the soup. This arrangement turned into a lovely hearty recipe.
Sausage Kale Potato Soup
Equipment
- Dutch Oven
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup onion chopped
- 1 lb ground country sausage
- 1½ lbs golden potatoes cut into 1" cubes
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 3 cups water
- ½ tsp pepper
- ¼ tsp red peper flakes (optional)
- 2 tbsp sun dried tomatoes roughly chopped
- 2 cups kale stems removed, cut into 1" squares
- 1 cup heavy cream
- shredded parmasean (optional)
Instructions
- Brown bacon in a dutch oven.
- Set bacon aside on paper towels to drain. Remove all but 1 tbsp of bacon grease from the pot (I use a paper towel to absorb the grease).
- In remaining bacon grease, saute garlic and onion for 1 minute.
- Add sausage to pot. Break sausage apart and continue cooking for 3-4 minutes until brown.
- Add potatoes, chicken stock, and water to pot, bring back to a boil.
- Add pepper and pepper flakes (if using). Cook until potatoes begin to soften (about 8 minutes).
- Once potates are tender, add the sun dried tomatoes. Cook until tomatoes start to rehydrate (about 3 minutes)
- Stir in kale and cook for 2 minutes (kale will start to wilt).
- Reduce heat to a low simmer.
- Add heavy cream and let simmer for 2 minutes. Do not overcook.
- Serve soup in a bowl garnished with the parmasean and bacon crumbles.
