Tuscan Sausage Soup
 

Here's one of my favorite cold weather foods:

1 lb. sausage sauteed with 1 small onion
Italian seasoning as desired (or use 1 lb. Italian sausage)
5 pieces of bacon (fried) in bacon drippings
3 cans chicken broth (43.5 oz total)
1 cup half and half (or cream)
10 oz. frozen spinach

Mix, heat to a slow boil, and enjoy. Mainly, you have to cook long enough to thaw and heat the frozen spinach and a little longer to let the flavors soak in.

The entire recipe (made with half and half) has 2,243 calories, 168 g fat, 41 g carb, 9 g fiber, and 146 g protein. I consider it to make 6 large servings, each of which is large enough to be a meal. Each serving has 374 calories, 6.8 g carbs, and 5.3 g net carbs. Using cream would increase the calories, but cut the net carbs per serving down to about 3 g.

I think the soup also tastes great reheated as leftovers. However, when reheating, be careful not to over-cook and boil off the liquid or it will start to taste salty.

If you want something to replace the potatoes found in higher carb Tuscan Sausage soups, I'd suggest turnips chopped in cubes. They hold their consistency better than cauliflower.

Sounds sooo delicious! Thanks very much for sharing this recipe. I'm going to try it soon.

I've made this recipe many times over the years, especially in recent months during the pandemic. I love it as an entree even during the hot months of summer.

The soup freezes well and, in my opinion, tastes even better reheated than it does upon first making. It tends to taste salty upon reheating, so I now start with unsalted chicken broth. I've also upped the bacon to 6 or 7 pieces because more bacon is always a good thing. And, when I had trouble finding frozen chopped spinach in March and April, I found that a 5 oz. bag of fresh spinach leaves worked well.

This sounds so good!
Thanks for sharing the receipe.

Im always looking for spinach recipes!!#