Soup is a perfect food in a lot of ways - you can easily make large quantities so it can be eaten for many meals, it warms you up in the winter and it's simple to cook!
This past week, I made up a large batch of what I have coined as Hearty Kielbasa White Bean Soup, which is a delicious mix of kielbasa, cannelini beans, and spinach in a warm beef broth that I could eat for days (and that is saying a lot because I am not generally a fan of leftovers, but I'm trying....).
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| Hearty Kielbasa White Bean Soup |
I love kielbasa because it's a grown up version of hot dogs, one of my favorite foods! This soup also has no milk/cream or cheese, which in my mind, automatically makes it healthy and I am giving myself a big pat on the back for creating a recipe with no dairy (since I'm a cheese-aholic...seriously, I need to go to meetings, let me know if you know of a group).
I'm actually craving this soup as I'm typing this...we have 1 more serving left, but I promised Kris that he could have it...have I mentioned that he's lucky?
Alright, let's get cooking!
Click here for the printable to bring into the kitchen.
Here is what you'll need to pull from your cabinets and fridge before you start:
6 beef bullion cubes
12 cups water
1 medium sized onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-13 oz. lite polska kielbasa, sliced
1-15.5 oz. can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
4 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
Handful baby spinach
How much time you need:
Between prep and cook time, plan to be in the kitchen for 30 minutes in total. I made the soup after I got home and put Emmy to bed, since you need to be pretty much uninterrupted in order to cook it - it cooks fast but between chopping, slicing, cooking kielbasa, etc., there isn't much downtime while it's cooking.
Now, to the fun part (lot's of pictures for this one!):
Start by boiling 6 cups of water with 6 beef bullion cubes. Stir every so often so that the cubes fully dissolve into the water. You could also buy pre-made beef broth, but I had a whole jar of these cubes in my cabinet that have been sitting there for a few months, feeling pretty lonely, so I wanted to give them some love...
Oh yeah, look at that rolling boil...
Once it has boiled, you can reduce heat to low.
While you are waiting for the water to boil, chop up your onion (keep chopping through the tears, it will all be worth it in the end...I promise). Mince up your garlic cloves at this time too.
Heat up 2 tablespoons of EVOO in a dutch oven (or similar pot). I have a Simply Calphalon Nonstick 7 qt. Dutch Oven and I absolutely love it, I use it for everything from soup to chili to macaroni and cheese. I definitely recommend investing into one, if you don't already have something similar.
Throw your onions and garlic into the EVOO and saute them over medium high heat until they are translucent and just starting to turn brown, as seen in the below picture.
Drain and rinse your cannellini beans.
Ignore the sink fully of dirty dishes in the background please...focus on those beautifully drained and rinsed beans! I was waiting for my dish washing fairy godmother to come by later that night and do her job...
Add the beans to the onions and garlic...mix them around and let them heat up for a few minutes.
Now, pour your beef broth into the pot, as well. Bring it to a boil over medium heat. Once it has boiled, add in 6 additional cups of water.
While your beans, onions, garlic and broth are having a flavor party over in your dutch oven... slice your kielbasa up into bite size pieces.
I used lite polska kielbasa, but you could switch out for turkey kielbasa, or any other kind of kielbsa for that matter, if you want to! You could probably even use sweet or hot italian sausage with this recipe, if you want to go for an Italian twist...but I wanted more of a German dish this time.
Yum, this picture makes me want to break out some cheese and crackers to eat with the kielbasa slices... see, I got side tracked thinking about cheese, I really need help.
Heat up 2 tablespoons of EVOO in a frying pan over medium high heat.
Toss your kielbasa into the hot EVOO. Cook them in the pan until the pieces have a nice sear on both sides, like in the picture below.
Deeeelicious.
Add the kielbasa into your soup pot and allow the broth to come back to a boil, and continue boiling for about 5 minutes to make sure all the flavors have all been married together.
Last step, grab a handful of baby spinach.
I'm sure that you are all wondering why I've never been asked to be a hand model... I'm sure Sally Hansen will want to snatch me up for a nail polish ad after they've seen this picture.
You should see your spinach starting to wilt fairly quickly...
until it looks like this...and then you're done!
And, that's it, folks, a yummy soup for dinner that is also perfect for lunches. The soup tastes even better the next time, after you've allowed all of the flavors to spend a night together in the fridge. I brought it into work twice for lunch and Kris also ate it twice for lunch. So, I would say it makes about 6-8 servings, depending on how hungry you are (or how much self control you have). I know that I'm going to make a double batch next time, so that I can freeze half of it for an easy dinner.
But don't take my word for it how good it is, because pictures speak a thousand words:
From my kitchen to yours,
Mama Friend
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