Dave's Italian Sausage and Kale Soup

The root of this soup was an italian sausage soup from most popular italian restaurants. I used the first few major tries following their recipes exactly. Then I modified using variations on spicing and then tomatoes. It ended with this deliciously spicy and robust recipe.

• Ready In: 2 hrs
• Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 1  bunch kale
• 4  hot Italian sausages
• 1  large onion, Diced
• 5  garlic cloves, Diced
• 1  jalapeno pepper, chopped and seeded
• 28  ounces diced tomatoes
• 48  ounces chicken broth
• 28  ounces water
• 2  tablespoons butter
• 2  tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1  tablespoon basil
• 1  tablespoon oregano
• 1  tablespoon Season-All salt
• 1  tablespoon red pepper flakes

Directions

1. This soup uses kale, but you can use any of the major greens you like. I have alternated in kale, escarole, and it has been reviewed with others using spinach. As the first review of this recipe indicates, using multiple pots can be a pain. However, the only reason to use two pots is if you are actually using kale. Other greens that are softer don't require blanching and as a result you can get away with using just one pot.
2. Using two pans, the soup pot and a regular 12 inch sauté pan:
3. Step 1.
4. In the soup pot:
5. Rinse the kale well, chopping off heavy stems.
6. While the kale is wet just add to soup pot and add about a quarter cup of water. Blanch the kale leaves in pot, reserve liquid and leave in soup pot for now.
7. Step 2.
8. In the sauté pan.
9. Skin the sausage, split lengthwise while raw with knife, and cut into bite sized pieces, so they look like small meatballs.
10. Lightly brown the sausage (do not cook through) drain and set as aside.
11. Make sure when cooking that you don’t burn the sausage as you will be cooking with the sausage grease next.
12. Pour out any grease that will easily drip out, but leave a fine coat of the sausage grease on the pan for your next step and set pan aside for now.
13. If you burn chunks of sausage to the pan, just use a paper towel to wipe out any black crust but leave some of the fat there.
14. Step 3.
15. Once the sausage is set aside take the large pieces of kale and chop into bite sized pieces. Return to the soup pot, keeping any liquid in the pot.
16. Add broth and tomatoes to the pot with the kale and begin to heat on high.
17. Step 4.
18. Sauté onion, garlic and jalapeño pepper into the slightly greasy pan with the 2 table spoons of butter.
19. When onions are slightly translucent or about 3 minutes, add spices to this mixture.
20. Step 5.
21. Add the sauté pan contents to the soup pot and add the sausage to the soup pot. Bring the entire mixture to a boil. After boiling for about 2 minutes, reduce heat to a medium low heat and simmer for about 1.5 hours.
22. Optional:
23. Option 1:
24. If you like, add 1 cup of rice to this and at 8 ounces of water while cooking. Suggest you add the rice to the sauté pan and sauté with the onion mix for about 3 minutes before putting into the main soup pot.
25. Option 2:
26. After soup has simmered for about half an hour alone, add a package of noodles of your choice and the 8 ounces of water.
27. Option 3:
28. Add 3 Medium potatoes chopped into small pieces while raw, sauté with onions until the potato cubes are soft to the touch. Add to soup pot.
29. Add 3 Medium potatoes chopped into small pieces while raw, sauté with onions until the potato cubes are soft to the touch. Add to soup pot.