Hearty Sausage and Vegetable Soup

On the way to the Family Reunion in Virginia, my husband and I stopped by our good friend's house and we couldn't visit without bearing gifts and knowing that he would cook for us, we brought a sack of red potatoes from our garden that I had recently dug.  I also picked kale on the morning we left and brought that along with some onions.  He was delighted with the vegetables.

My friend asked if we would like a Sausage and Vegetable soup.  He must have seen that I turned my nose up at that combination but he assured me that it was quite good.

He removed the skin from a pound of sausage and tore the sausage into small bite size pieces. He stir fried the sausage with onions and minced garlic from a jar. While the sausage was browning, he thinly sliced some of the potatoes and leaving the skin on them; sliced the onions; and cut up the kale.

He added chicken broth to the cooking pot.

When I replicated the recipe at home, I was short of broth so I added water to my soup. Also, I  tore the sausage into bite size pieces-- keeping in mind what I'd like for them to appear as in the soup.  I found that I could add as much potatoes and kale as necessary or as I had broth.  One pound of sausage, any kind, is plenty.

So, to get back to my friend's cooking:   the sausage and onions were browned, broth was added, the sliced potatoes and cut up kale were also added into the soup pot.  The soup was seasoned with garlic and I added pepper to taste for my soup.  My friend brought the soup to a boil and let it simmer gently for no longer than 15 minutes.  He checked to see if the potatoes were cooked by inserting a paring knife into the potatoes.

The soup was delicious and it was served with a tossed salad and Asiago bread.

Thank you for visiting my blog.