Sausage and Kale Soup

With the onset of fall, I am starting to turn once more towards soups and stews. This one is satisfyingly filling and spicy enough to warm you up at the end of a long day. Can easily be a meal unto itself.

This recipe provides my household of two with two very large servings each, or three smaller ones.

INGREDIENTS

- one typical grocery-store package of spicy italian sausage (~450 grams, I think). I usually get the Johnsonville hot italian sausage meat without the casing, since it's much easier to handle, but you can easily shuck some regular sausage and break it up. If all you have is mild italian, that'll work too, but you'll want to add in some chilli flakes or something to make up the difference.

- one medium onion, very finely diced. The food processor is your friend.

- four to six garlic cloves, also finely diced. Or, really, however much garlic as you like, because garlic is awesome.

- four cups (i.e., one tetra-pack) of no-sodium-added chicken or vegetable broth

- two or three large potatoes, cut into smallish pieces

- as much kale as you feel like adding, with large stems removed, chopped. I've made this with as little as one bunch and as much as three bunches, and the only real difference is that the latter ended up more like... kale stew, rather than soup. Both versions were delicious. Really, you're only limited by your own tastes and the size of your pot.

- one 250 mL carton of cream, I suggest 10-15% for a good, rich soup, but 5% will work in a pinch.

INSTRUCTIONS

1) Combine the diced onion and garlic with the sausage meat in a large pot, and cook until the onion is soft and the sausage is at least mostly done.

(Pre-cooking the onion is something you'll see very often in my recipes, because though I recognize onion as a valuable foundation for many dishes, I absolutely cannot stand crunching into one. So my onions tend to get pureed and cooked down very well.)

2) Stir in the broth and potatoes, bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and cook until the potatoes are just on the firm side of done. You can cook them until they're crumbly, too, if you like, but they pretty much just dissolve into the soup at that point.

3) Stir in your chopped kale and let it cook some more, until the leaves are wilted to your satisfaction.  Shouldn't take very long. If you're using large amounts of kale, you may have to add it in stages. Don't worry, it does reduce. Promise.

4) Finally, once everything else is done, add in the cream and continue cooking until everything is just heated through. You don't want to let it boil for any length of time at this point.

5) Done! Serve and enjoy.