Slow Cooker Italian Sausage and Vegetable Soup

Here is a hybrid of Sweet Pea's chicken taco soup, which by the way, we had it again recently and it was so so good. Brilliant Bird e-mailed me and asked if Sweet Pea's taco soup would be good with Italian sausage. I said yes, but with some changes.


My mind went about 100 miles an hour as I figured out how to change this taco soup into an Italian soup. It was all about exchanging ingredients to ones that complimented each other in an Italian flavor profile. And it was a hit. Mild Italian sausage, fresh kale and zucchini, two kinds of beans and lots of Italian seasonings like basil and rosemary. We had a baguette with this and Ethan cut off the end, hollowed it out and filled it with soup. Whatever works.



1 15 oz can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
15 oz can tomato sauce
2 15 oz cans of diced tomatoes, undrained
2 15 oz can chicken stock
1 small onion, diced
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp rosemary
1 tsp basil
Pinch of red pepper flakes
Pinch of fennel seeds
2 splashes of red wine vinegar
1 lb mild Italian sausage links, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices
1 medium zucchini, cut into chunks
2 kale leaves, stalks trimmed off and leaves cut into thin shreds
Kosher salt and ground pepper
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for serving

Plug in the slow cooker. In the slow cooker pot, combine both beans, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, chicken stock, onion, thyme, oregano, rosemary, basil, red pepper flakes, fennel and red wine vinegar. Stir well to combine and set slow cooker to low. Cook for 6 hours.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, saute sausage until lightly browned and cooked through. Add sausage to the slow cooker and stir to combine. Stir in the zucchini and kale and cook on high for 30 minutes. Serve soup with Parmesan cheese on top.

Yields 6 servings.

Rookie's Notes: I wrote to put one onion in this recipe, but the onion I was dicing seemed huge, so I only added 1/2 of it. Do what you will.

Instead of cooking the sausage in the soup, I cooked it on the stove. I wanted the caramelization on the sausage instead of having it boiled in the soup. Yes, it's an extra step, but a delicious one.