Ingredients
½ lb (8 oz) mild breakfast sausage
½ t dried basil
½ t dried oregano
½ t garlic powder
¼ t onion powder
¼ t dried rosemary, chopped fine
¼ t black pepper
½ medium butternut squash (1 ½ lbs), peeled and cut into 1/4” cubes
4 c chopped kale
Directions
1 Mix together sausage, basil, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, rosemary, and black pepper.
2 In a stockpot, cook sausage mixture over medium heat until no longer pink, breaking into crumbles, 8–10 minutes.
3 Add squash and broth; gradually stir in kale. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered until vegetables are tender, 15 minutes.
4 Optional: Top servings with shredded Parmesan cheese.
I honestly wasn’t expecting to like this soup, but it ended up being a delightful surprise! I only had to jump one major hurdle to get there. The original recipe used Italian turkey sausage. As was reinforced to me a few weeks ago when I made Pasta Fagioli Soup, I really really really don’t like Italian sausage because I don’t like fennel. To remedy this, I went on an Internet search for turning plain ol’ breakfast sausage into “Italian” sausage, so I could make it without fennel. I found a few recipes and adapted them into one using what I had in my pantry. I’m very happy about how it turned out in this soup. It gave the soup the Italian flavors without the fennel. Also parting from the original recipe, I picked up traditional pork breakfast sausage rather than turkey breakfast sausage. This was just an oversight at the grocery store, because I don’t usually buy sausage at all. But I’m glad it happened, because pork is good! And this soup is good! The sweet butternut squash complements the “Italian” sausage; the kale gives the soup a bit of a crunch; and the Simple Chicken Stock floats it all together in savory satisfaction. The topping of shredded Parmesan cheese isn’t even needed, so I took it out of the recipe and made it optional. If you’re looking for a soup course for Thanksgiving dinner, this would be excellent since it’s not heavy at all. I hope you try it now, next week, or anytime!
If you’d like to see the original recipes my posts are based on or read Taste of Home’s article that inspired my 50 Soups in 25 Weeks blogging, go to: https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/soups-to-keep-you-warm-this-fall/.
