White Bean, Sausage, and Greens Soup

-LW

This hearty soup is perfect for a cold winter day. The recipe is also very flexible. I'm providing approximate amounts of ingredients, but I usually don't measure anything too carefully. You can easily swap out similar ingredients as well, such as black-eyed peas for the white beans, spinach for the kale, or bacon for the sausage. If you don't have chicken broth, water will work fine. If you don't have white wine, you can just leave it out.

I like to serve this soup with grated parmesan sprinkled over the top. If you happen to have an extra parmesan rind, you could throw it into the broth for extra flavor.

Ingredients
3 links Italian sausage (I used sweet, but spicy is fine too)

1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 small onions, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup white wine

3 cans cannelini, great Northern, or other white beans, drained

2 cups chicken broth

1 teaspoon rosemary

2 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon pepper

salt to taste

1 bunch fresh kale, torn into bite-sized pieces, or 1 bag fresh spinach

parmesan cheese, for serving

Directions
Squeeze sausage out of its lining and cook over medium heat in a large pot. Break into crumbles. Remove to a separate bowl with a slotted spoon, leaving grease behind.

Sautee onions in leftover sausage grease until soft and turning brown, about 10-15 min. Add olive oil if onions start to stick. Add garlic and sautee for another 2-3 min.

Add white wine and deglaze pan, scraping up brown bits of onion and sausage. Add beans, chicken broth, rosemary, bay leaves, and pepper to pot. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for at least 10-15 min. or longer to build flavor.

Turn heat back up to medium and stir in sausage and kale or spinach until the greens are wilted (spinach will wilt faster and kale will take a bit longer). Test flavor and season with salt if desired.

Serve with grated parmesan cheese.