I got a lot of good feedback from my last recipe blog, Greek Style Quinoa. . In keeping with the quinoa theme, I present Italian Quinoa and Sausage Soup.
I’m always looking for ways to get enough protein and eat leafy greens. This recipe does both.
This is how I made my soup, but as always, you can play around with the ingredients.
Soupy Base:
1-14oz can of generic tomato sauce
2 1/2 cups of beef broth
Meat:
1 pound of spicy Italian sausage
Vegetables:
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
1/2- 3/4 bunch of kale (use as much as you want).
1/2 onion sliced
3 carrots chopped
about 1 teaspoon of generic Italian seasoning
1 cup quinoa
Directions
Prep:
1. Cook the quinoa and put to the side
2. Brown the sausage in olive oil and set aside. Don’t throw away the grease.
3. Wash the kale, prepare the onion and carrots. Set aside.
In a large saucepan, saute the garlic and onions in about a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the carrots and Italian seasoning. Cook for a couple minutes. Add tomato sauce and beef stock, turn up the heat. Add the already cooked quinoa. Add the kale. The kale will take a little while to soften so you have to be patient. Use a spoon to help it along. Add the sausage and sausage drippings. Once the soup is boiling, cover it and turn the heat down to low. I let the soup simmer for between a half hour and 45 minutes. It was plenty of time for the flavors to mix and the sausage to cook.
I must say, I loved the way this soup came out. Granted, my standards for food acceptability is pretty low: if the food is healthy, has protein, and tastes half-way decent, I’m good to go.
P.S. If you don’t like pork sausage, you could always try some other type of meat sausage. In addition, the first time I made the soup, I used sweet Italian sausage, but it lacked a certain something. The spicy sausage worked a lot better.
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