This Italian sausage and spinach soup is similar to a pasta e fagioli soup without the pasta, so it’s a low-carb option to warm you up on a cold winter’s night.  Packed full of whole ingredients, this soup is hearty and easy to throw together on a week night.

There was a meme I saw the other day that said, “Based on the amount of laundry I do each week, I am going to assume that there are people who live here that I have not met yet.”  Nothing could be closer to the truth around here.  Who are all of these clothes from?  Surely not from these two tiny humans and the two adults.  To make things easier, a couple of years ago when B was first born, I decided to get tough about laundry.  I was so sick of seeing laundry heaped on our couch in the basement, never sorted, folded, put away.  Now everyone has their own laundry basket with their mugshot attached, so when the clothes come out of the dryer, you’re supposed to classify each article of clothing into the proper bin.  We then all collect our bins and fold and put away our clothes (well…C can start to fold now, but B can at least classify).  What actually happens?  We go to the basement and get our clothes out of the hamper to wear for the day.  Ideal?  No.  What real life looks like right now?   Totally.

We are lucky enough to be able to out-source one professional house cleaning a month…and we treat this day like it’s gold, man.  We clean up for the cleaners, you know what I mean?  Our lovely cleaning people come today, so yesterday was an all-hands-on-deck effort to maximize the clean by eliminating some of the clutter.  You!  Clean up the legos!  You, over there!  You get the puzzle pieces picked up!  You?  Unload the dishes!  It was time to bark at everyone.

While I’m in laundry hell, I can at least have a good soup on the stove cooking.  This sausage and spinach soup is so delicious and could also be keto diet approved if you made some minor adjustments — at least I’m pretty sure.  Admittedly, I don’t really understand the keto diet because I feel like I’ve heard conflicting things about it depending on who you ask or what you Google.  But I’m pretty sure.

Sausage is something we don’t eat a ton of mostly because I forget about it.  I’ll also only eat it from Whole Foods, where I know there’s no weird ingredients included and no nitrates.  When I remember that sausage exists though, it’s a nice aberration.  Give this soup a try.  We need to soak up as much of the warm, hearty foods as possible because SPRING IS AROUND THE CORNER, people!

Active Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Yields: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3-4 Italian sausage links (or whatever sausage you prefer)
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (or 1 teaspoon basil and 1 teaspoon oregano)
• 1 (28 oz.) can whole, peeled tomatoes (I prefer San Marzano I get at Whole Foods)
• 2 (15 oz.) cans cannellini beans (white beans), rinsed and drained
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach
• 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

Optional toppings/additions:

• freshly grated parmesan (optional)
• small tubular pasta (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add onions, salt and pepper and cook for about 3-4 minutes or until translucent.  Add garlic and cook for 1 more minute.  Add the sausage and break into smaller pieces until slightly browned.
2. Add vegetable (or chicken) broth and Italian seasoning, and bring to a boil.
3. Meanwhile, place whole peeled tomatoes in a bowl.  Using a masher or immersion blender, blend tomatoes until they’re a smooth puree.
4. Add tomatoes, spinach, and parsley.
5. Lower to a simmer and cook covered for about an hour.
6. Before serving, add parmesan or pasta if you’d like.*

*If you’re going to add pasta, I recommend cooking the pasta separately and adding it to individual bowls as you’re about to serve it so it doesn’t get too mushy.  I also find that so much of the soup is absorbed by the pasta, too, so you lose a lot of the delicious liquid of the soup.

Enjoy!

xox