Molly Cookie

My favorite Vegetable Soup with Italian Sausage

Jan 16, 2011 Food Things, Healthy, Soups, Weeknight Favorites

I was going to write about brownies today, but this soup was so amazing I couldn’t think about anything yes. Yes, the vegetable soup beat the brownies. I don’t know what’s happening to me.

I can honestly say without exaggeration that this soup is the best soup I’ve ever had in my life.

After I first had that thought, I spent some time thinking through all of the great soups that I’ve tried. A few great ones came to mind, but as I was eating this I knew it had them all beat. The flavors of the vegetables along with the small bit of Italian Sausage and fire roasted tomatoes blend together perfectly, and you are left with a delicious broth that you won’t want to leave a sip of behind. Which, as it turns out, is perfectly fine because this soup is probably not only the best soup, but the healthiest soup in the world.

Probably.

I really wanted to make a healthy dinner, because before I made this soup I made this cake:

It’s my friend Rachel’s birthday, the same person I made the cake for when I posted about it over a year ago, and she is having a party with about 30 people. The recipe is awesome-  you can find it by clicking here- except this version is twice the size, measuring 12x12x8 and weighing 15 pounds. After creating such a massive chocolate and peanut butter masterpiece I knew I wanted something healthy.

Now, the soup recipe originally came from Mark Bittman’s book The Food Matter’s Cookbook, and it’s called the Clean-out-the-Fridge Vegetable Soup. It has so many variations in the book because for each vegetable you use he gives you 3 choices to pick from. For example, I used an onion, but for that ingredient I could have also used scallions or leeks. For the carrots I could have substituted parsnips or turnips. For cabbage I could have used spinach or broccoli. I chose the vegetables I liked, added some extra tomatoes and a little Italian Sausage, and it turned out wonderfully.

The recipe in the book said this made four servings, and if you are a giant Lumberjack then this might be true for you. It actually made about 7 Brian and Molly sized servings, which I think is fairly normal… I think.

My favorite Vegetable Soup with Italian Sausage
Slightly adapted from Clean-out-the-Fridge Vegetable Soup from The Food Matters Cookbook by Mark Bittman

Ingredients
4 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces mild or hot Italian sausage, casing removed
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 yellow squash, chopped
1 cup frozen corn kernels
10 ounces cabbage, chopped (about half a medium sized head)
salt and pepper
2 15 ounce cans fire roasted diced tomatoes with their juice
1/2 cup chopped basil
Grated Parmesan cheese for garnish, if desired

Directions
1. Put 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add Italian sausage and cook, breaking the sausage into bite-sized bits, until the sausage is cooked through and browned. Remove the sausage from the pan with a slotted spoon (it’s alright if little bits stay in the pan). Add the rest of the olive oil to the pot, then add the onion and carrots and cook, stirring often, until the onion is soft, about 10 minutes.

2. Add the squash, corn, and cabbage. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, for a minute or two, then add the tomatoes and 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then adjust the heat so the mixture bubbles gently. Cook, stirring every now and then, until the vegetables are soft and the tomatoes have broken up, about 15 minutes.

3. Add the basil and Italian sausage and adjust the heat once again so that the mixture bubbles gently. Cook until all the vegetables are very tender, 5 to 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Scoop into bowls and top with parmesan if desired.

Tags: healthy soup, italian sausage soup, mark bittman soup, mark bittman vegetable soup, vegetable soup