Tuscan Potato Soup

By seanachi

We're down to the dregs in our kitchen this week. I'm trying REALLY hard to come up with meals out of the things we have left. We're down to several pounds of ground beef, chunks of ham, a ridiculous quantity of canned tuna, and some Italian sausage in the freezer. As we're out of at least one ingredient for almost everything I make regularly with ground beef, that was out. Sausage it was. I have to say, I thought it would be decent, but I was really amazed at how rich and flavorful it turned out. I'm normally not that huge a fan of Italian sausage, but it adds so much wonderful flavor to the potatoes. I will definitely be making it again, perhaps with some homemade focaccia as a side.

Ingredients

• 6 * 6 medium potatoes, cubed
• 1 * 1 large onion, diced
• 3 * 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 * 1 stalk of celery, diced
• 1 * 1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
• 1 * 1 pound Italian sausage
• 6 * 6 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 * 1/2 tsp rosemary
• 1/2 * 1/2 tsp thyme
• * fresh ground pepper and salt to taste

Details

Servings 5
Adapted from potsandplots.wordpress.com

Preparation

Step 1

1. Cut a slit in your sausage links and peel off the casing.
2. Break up the sausage and cook over medium high heat.
3. Meanwhile, scrub and dice your potatoes, and add to the crock pot.
4. Check and stir your sausage.
5. Dice your carrot, celery, and onion. Set aside.
6. Add your chicken stock to the crock. You can use homemade or store-bought. I had a mixture of the two.
7. Add the garlic to the crock.
8. Your sausage should be done by now, so spoon it out into a colander and rinse thoroughly with very hot water.
9. Return the skillet with the sausage grease to the stovetop and add your carrot, onion, and celery mixture.
10. Saute this on medium for approximately 5 minutes or until onion becomes translucent.
11. Add the sauteed vegetables to the crock and stir well.
12. Add the thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper.
13. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 (until the potatoes are tender).

This worked out to 5 servings at 406 calories and 16 grams of fat per serving.