Tuscan Soup Recipe

You guys know that normally Mendi posts the recipes but every once in a while I want to share something that I love to make and eat! I got this recipe from a fellow blogger, Katie over at Domestiphobia.  See I love reading about Katie's life and all of her awesome recipes and when she posted this soup I knew I had to try it! Sausage and bacon in the same ingredient list...yes please!

Ingredient List:

1 Pound of Spicy Sausage

1 Medium Red Onion, diced

2-3 Slices of Bacon, diced

3 Cloves of Garlic, minced (I'd recommend the real thing and not the garlic that is pre-minced in the jar. Also, for my own personal taste, I don't actually use the whole 3 cloves. I go with 2 to 2-1/2.)

1 Quart Warm Water

3 Cubes of Chicken Bouillon

1/4 Bunch of Kale, roughly chopped

1/2 Cup of Heavy Cream

Salt and Pepper to taste

Step One: Go ahead and dice up the onion, bacon and garlic and set aside. Also, go ahead and slice your potatoes as seen below (about 1/4" thick). You can remove the skins if you like but I like the soup with the skins on. This prep work will help you down the line when you need to add these ingredients to your pot.

Step Two: Brown the sausage, remove from pot and set aside. If there's a lot of excess grease in the pot then dispose of most of it. I didn't have a lot of grease so I just took a paper towel and soaked up a little. You do want to have some of the excess bits left in the pot.

Step Three: Add the onions and bacon into the pot (that is now empty) and cook on a medium-high heat.  Add the garlic once the onions are cooked. Cook for about one minute. Then add one quart of warm water to the pot with the onions, bacon and garlic.  Now I don't know much about cooking, but Katie says that by adding the warm water it will "deglaze" the pot and get all of the bits and tastiness worked back into the soup. I believe her!

Step Four: Add the 3 bouillon cubes and the sliced potatoes to the pot.  Let simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft but not fully cooked.

Step Five: Add the sausage back into the pot and add the chopped kale.  Then pour in the 1/2 cup of heavy cream and a little salt and pepper. This will cook for another 5 minutes or so - the potatoes should be soft and the kale should be wilted and be a nice dark green.

Step Six: Enjoy your meal!

This is a perfect meal for me to make because I do the work once and get to enjoy it over and over again. Thanks to Katie for posting this recipe and feel free to go and check out her blog. She is so very entertaining! And she has cute dogs!

Jayme