Here’s a “let’s use up what’s in the fridge” meal for you — I had a near-expired Johnsonville smoked sausage (and did you notice the shrink ray hit those? 13.5 oz now, thankyouverymuch — didn’t smoked sausage used to be closer to 1lb?), some sad looking mushrooms from the $.49 sale at ALDI last week, and an expiring bag of spinach from last week’s Dominick’s sale.

So, I picked up celery at Ultra yesterday and a nice loaf of bread at Dominick’s today, and started with this recipe to make the above soup tonight. Isn’t that a weird mix of store and name brand ingredients? Store brand beans, Hunt’s tomatoes, store brand bay leaves, Spice Islands thyme, ALDI carrots and Fresh Express spinach. It works.

Miracle smoked sausage + spinach soup

I hereby dub this: miracle soup — because everyone in the family ate it without complaining! (OK, MashupAtkinsDad picked the beans out of his, but I’ll take it.)

Ingredients

One can cannellini beans
One can fire roasted diced tomatoes
One rib celery
About 20 baby carrots, sliced into coins
Two small onions
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
One package smoked sausage (mine was 13.5 oz)
One 32 oz box chicken broth
One tsp (or so, I didn’t measure) of thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Red pepper flakes to taste
About 3 tsp minced garlic
One bay leaf
One 9 oz bag fresh spinach

Directions

Slice or dice smoked sausage, depending how big you like the pieces — I sliced mine into coins, then sliced those in half. In soup pot, saute sausage on medium heat til just browned, remove into separate bowl. Slice onions into small chunks, slice carrots into coins, chop celery. Saute onions, carrots, celery in the bit of grease from the smoked sausage until getting soft, then add sliced mushrooms and saute until soft.

Add garlic and red pepper flakes to taste, saute another minute or two. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add sausage back in. Add can of tomatoes, beans (with liquid), and broth. Add about 2 cups water. Add bay leaf and thyme. Simmer on low — mine went for 90+ minutes, and I added a bit more red pepper as it went along to give it a bit of a kick. Just before serving, remove bay leaf, add spinach, and stir in until wilted.

Y-U-M — My only complaint is that it didn’t make enough leftovers! lol

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