Hearty Sausage Vegetable soup (with or without tortellini)
Ingredients
- A package of fresh Italian sausage I use sweet, use what suits your taste, casings removed and broken into small pieces
- 1 onion chopped
- 4-5 cloves of garlic peeled and diced
- 1 32 oz container of beef stock or use homemade beef stock
- 1 cup Ketchup
- 1 large can or 2 small cans of diced tomatoes
- 2-4 + cups of water enough to cover ingredients and to a good ingredient/broth ratio
- 2-3 large carrots cut into bite sized pieces
- 1-2 stalks of celery optional but good
- 1 zucchini cut into bite sized pieces and/or package of fresh or frozen spinach
- 1 Tbsp of Italian seasoning
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Parmesan cheese for garnish
- optional 1 package of fresh or frozen tortellini, or pasta of your choice
Instructions
- Brown sausage in a large soup pan or dutch oven over med to med/high heat
- Add onions and garlic and cook until soft adjusting heat so they don't burn
- Poor in beef stock, ketchup, diced tomatoes and extra water.
- Add carrots, celery (if using) and Italian seasoning and bring to gentle boil. You can also add spinach at this time if you use it. Wait to add zucchini until the last 15 min of the cooking time so it doesn't get too soft.
- Cook until vegetables are soft.
- Add more water if needed as it boils off
- Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper as needed (the salt from the sausage and stock is often enough)
- Either cook tortellini separate and add to each bowl (this is good for leftovers so it won't get mushy) or you can throw it in the soup and let it cook through.
- Serve with parmesan cheese on top
Notes
This yields enough to feed my family of 6 with leftovers for lunch. You can adjust the amounts to suit your family size. Often I will add extra veggies to stretch it out. Also, don't be afraid to make ahead and reheat (without pasta) as it tastes better the next day!
Adapted from from my mom who got recipe from coworker