White Bean Spinach Sausage Soup

White Bean Spinach Sausage Soup

I made this wonderful soup last night and I have to give credit to The Nourishing Gourmet for the base recipe. I was given about 20 lbs of white beans and a few large boxes of spinach. (Anyone who knows me knows my theory on food. If it wasn't food 100 years ago you probably shouldn't eat it today.) Anyway, I made my beans in one of those counter top electric pressure cookers. I picked mine up second hand for $40 because ... well, I just roll that way.

I made a HUGE Pot of white beans (about 6 cups dry beans) adding in 8 minced garlic cloves a few bay leaves, about 1/4 cup of olive oil and a dash of pepper. I was sure to add an extra few cups of water to my beans because this is a soup and I wanted that flavorful water for it. The beans took about 45 min in the pressure cooker. After the cooker was in its cool down mode, I took some turkey breakfast sausage that I had and browned it in a stock pot (make sure its large enough to finish the soup off in). Of course I didn't have tomato paste but I had some sauce that I had canned last summer (1/2 pint) so I tossed that in the pan and cooked it down to the consistency of  paste keeping the sausage in with it. I wanted more of a flavor and am not a huge fan of oregano so I added about 15 fresh basil leaves. Then I dumped in the hot beans from the pressure cooker and stirred it slowly until all the browned bits of meat and tomato work their way off the bottom of the pan. It was a little thick for me so I added about 2 cups of chicken stock and about a tablespoon of salt. Yes I used sea salt. I brought it to a simmer and turned off the heat. Then added about 8 cups of fresh spinach leaves and stirred them in until they got that wilted look. My husband who usually HATES soup loved this! You could really use any type of sausage. I just used what I had on hand. The next day this is thicker so you will want to add some more chicken stock or water to thin it out.