sausage + sweet potato soup

Who else is excited that the beloved soup weather is back!? I love it. Friday night we had some friends over for our first chili of the season! If you're looking for a good chili recipe, PW (Pioneer Woman) has a great one. I follow it almost exactly. Y'all know from pretty much any recipe I share, I can't follow a recipe exactly without adjusting for our tastes. Saturday we split the chili leftovers for lunch and then I made a pot of soup for supper because the weather was perfect for it!

Anytime I make a new recipe, I always ask Dustin, "Is it a keeper?" and he agreed that this is one to make again! When I was serving the soup, I tried to describe it to him as a close relative --maybe a soup sibling-- of Olive Garden's Zuppa Tuscana (as if soups have relatives!?) Several of the ingredients are the same but there's just enough changes that it has a different flavor, sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes & a tomatoey broth instead of a creamy broth. I was inspired by Martha Stewart's recipe but I did my own adjustments according to the reviews I read (always read recipe reviews!) and what we had on hand. No offense, Martha! Here's the recipe with my alterations.

Sausage + Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper
1 lb bulk mild Italian Sausage
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 small can tomato paste
Italian seasoning (I eyeballed it, maybe almost a tablespoon?)
A pinch of crushed red pepper flakes (you could omit if you don't like extra heat)
A dash of ground nutmeg
4 cups unsalted beef broth
2 cups water
4 cups roughly chopped kale

Directions
In a large pot, saute onions in EVOO until tender. Add in sausage and cook until browned. Add in seasonings and garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes until fragrant. Stir tomato paste into the sausage and onion mixture. Let this cook together for a minute or two. Throw in potatoes and cover with the broth and water. Bring to a boil for about 10 minutes. After about 10 minutes test a potato for tenderness. At this point mine needed just few minutes longer (probably about 4) so I went ahead and added the kale for it to wilt. Taste for seasonings and enjoy!

I love the flavors of this soup! It's a little spicy from the sausage and red pepper flakes, a little sweet from the sweet potatoes and tomato paste. It's also very hearty & filling! The colors are very fall-ish, too! Deep red from the broth, green from the kale, bright orange from the sweet potato. Oh and let's not forget about the nutrition! Good protein from the sausage, a nice serving of carbohydrate and Vitamin A from the sweet potatoes, Vitamin A, K, and C from the kale. I contemplated adding a can of cannellini beans but didn't. I might next time!

Let me know if you give this recipe a try and what you think of it!