Sausage, Shitake, White Bean and Kale Soup

Sausage, Shitake, White Bean and Kale Soup

Part of being more conscious about what we’re eating involves making sure that we’re using the things we have in the fridge.  A while back we bought some spicy chicken sausage thinking we needed to supplement an impromptu dinner party for last-minute guests.  As it turned out, the guests decided at the last-minute that they weren’t coming.  We’re not really grill up a sausage and eat it kinda guys so we opted for soup. I’ve been making soup long enough to know that as long as you have tasty ingredients and you give mind to equal distribution of ingredients for bites, you can pretty much throw it together and it’ll work.  That’s your cue to go crazy with your pantry and my way of saying that the amounts of particular ingredients here should be used as a guideline; add what you have, skip what you don’t and taste throughout the cooking process and you’ll be happy.

Soup for me needs bread and as we were sitting down to eat, the garlic butter toast I had in mind didn’t pan out because I forgot to buy butter.  We’ve said for ages that avocado is nature’s butter and so instead of slathering the toast with butter, we just mashed up an avocado and voila!  All the time we’ve been right!

Weight Watchers Points:  7 (not including toast or avocado)

INGREDIENTS

• 4  pre-cooked spicy chicken sausages, coarsely chopped
• 1 Tbsp Avocado Oil (olive oil will work too)
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 4 gloves garlic, minced
• 2 cans white beans
• 2 pint containers of Shitake mushrooms, stems removed, coarsely chopped
• 8 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1 bunch of kale, stems removed
• 1 Tbsp fresh thyme chopped
• 1 Tbsp fresh oregano chopped
• 6 cups chicken stock
• kosher salt
• fresh ground black pepper

PREPARATION

1. Heat oil in a large pot until shimmering.  Add onions and sautee until beginning to be translucent, about 5 minutes.  In a separate pan, heat sausage until it starts to sweat.
2. Add sausage, garlic, celery, oregano, thyme and mushrooms.  Stir until mushrooms become tender, about 3 minutes.
3. Add white beans and kale and cook until kale starts to wilt.  Add chicken stock and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.
5. Season with salt and pepper and serve.  (Grate a little parmesan or pecorino cheese over the top as a finishing touch).

Pork Green Chile Tacos with Habanero Refried Beans

 

The effort to satisfaction ratio of this recipe makes it the perfect choice for a weeknight dinner celebrating your way to Friday.

This was always a favorite in our house growing up.  I guess I just assumed that because I loved it so much, it must be difficult to do.  It’s adapted from The Junior League of Denver’s Colorado Cache Cookbook for Green Chile Burritos.  Because we’re currently in the process of lowering our fat intake and trying to keep a handle on portion control, we adapted it from burritos to tacos.

As much as I try to stick with fresh ingredients, there’s a lot that comes out of a can here, but you’d never know and it’s completely worth it because it means you can have something delicious on a weeknight and not have to spend more than 30 minutes in the kitchen.  I mean really, if you think about it, you can’t even get a pizza that quickly.

Have to add special thanks to my Dad for dinner tonight.  I decided on this recipe pretty spontaneously and called home to make sure I wan’t forgetting any ingredients.  He dragged out the cookbook and walked me through the aisles.

INGREDIENTS

Green Chile

• 2 pounds of lean pork diced (I used a package of pork tenderloins from Costco)
• 32 oz carton of chicken broth
• 2- 7oz cans of chopped mild green chiles
• 1- 14.5oz can of chopped fire roasted tomatoes

Refried Beans

• 1- 24oz can of fat free refried beans
• 3 Tbsp of Habanero Pepper Plant Hot Sauce (substitute your favorite hot sauce here, but I’ll tell you, Pepper Plant is the bomb!)

Tacos

• 1 Package of La Tortilla small tortillas (they’re half corn and half flour so you get the best of both worlds.  We’re partial to the Green Chile flavor at the moment, but there are lots to choose from or you can use any taco-sized tortillas you prefer.)
• Grated cheddar cheese
• Fresh tomatoes and shredded lettuce

 

DIRECTIONS

Simmer pork in broth until tender and thoroughly cooked.  Add chiles and canned tomatoes and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes more.

Place beans in a small saucepan, add hot sauce and heat thoroughly.

Once green chile is done and beans are heated thoroughly, spread a layer of beans on tortilla and top with green chile, cheese, lettuce and tomato.  Serve immediately.

 

It’s really that easy and it makes a ton so there will be leftovers for lunch the next day or even dinner tomorrow.