Italian Sausage Soup with Beans and Spinach
Italian sausage soup with white beans and spinach comes together quickly and satisfies so many cravings. It's packed with nutrients but also feels just a touch indulgent. Here's how to make it.
Calories: 392kcal
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds (680 grams) sweet Italian sausage meat
- 1 medium yellow onion diced small
- 2 large carrots diced small
- 2 large ribs celery diced small
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 6 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 8 cups 1(900 ml) lower-sodium chicken broth
- 1 26.5- ounce 750-gram box (or similar size can) chopped tomatoes
- 1 pound (454 grams) small or medium pasta shells
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil
- 2 15.5- ounce 440-gram cans cannellini or other white beans, drained and rinsed
- 8 ounces (227 grams) baby spinach
- ¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Grated parmesan or pecorino for serving
Instructions
- Remove sausage from casings (if any) and crumble it into a very large pot. (I use a 9-quart Dutch oven.)
- Cook, stirring occasionally, until sausage is browned and cooked through.
- Remove sausage to a paper towel-lined plate and spoon out and discard all but about one tablespoon of fat from the pot.
- Lower heat to medium. Add onion, carrots and celery, along with the salt, and stir to coat with fat. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until carrots are fairly tender and veggies are lightly browned in spots.
- Add garlic and cook, stirring, one minute more.
- Stir in tomatoes and their juices, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
- Pour in stock.
- Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to simmer for ten minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook pasta shells to al dente in a separate pot of well-salted water. Drain and toss with the olive oil.
- Back in the big soup pot, add beans, reserved sausage, and spinach.
- Simmer until spinach is wilted.
- Off the heat, stir in parsley and black pepper.
- Ladle soup into bowls, stirring some pasta shells into each. Serve with cheese to pass at the table.
Notes
- You can buy sweet Italian sausage in bulk (which is easier and usually less expensive) or buy sausage links and remove it from the casings if that's what you can find. If you'd like a spicier soup, you can use hot Italian sausage.
- Small (conchigliette) and medium (conchiglie) pasta shells work equally well. I've pictured medium ones in the photos of the finished soup and small ones in the video.
- I've called for cannellini beans, but you can use any small to medium-sized canned or cooked white beans that you like.
- Like most soups, this one only gets better as it sits in the fridge for a couple of days. It will keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for a week, and you can freeze it for up to a year. Store the pasta separately — and if you plan to freeze the soup, it's best to make a fresh pot of pasta for the portion you'll serve later.
A few easy variations
Vegan Italian sausage soup
You might think that a soup based on sausage would be hard to veganize, but in fact this recipe lends itself beautifully to an easy vegan variation. Simply swap in a vegan Italian sausage for the pork version and use a good veggie broth or stock instead of the chicken broth. That's it!Gluten-free
It's also super-easy to make a gluten-free version. Just make sure your sausage is gluten-free (it should be, but you never know), and use a GF pasta.Lightened up
To lighten up the soup a bit, you could use an Italian sausage made of chicken or turkey rather than pork. Just check the label for nutritional info if it's important to you. Chicken and turkey sausages are frequently lower in fat and calories, but they're not always.Nutrition
Calories: 392kcal | Carbohydrates: 61.5g | Protein: 13.6g | Fat: 11.5g | Fiber: 8.4g