Sausage & Veg Soup #slowcooker

If you are looking for a hearty bowl of soup chock full of veggies – you can to the right recipe. This creamy soup is bursting with flavor and packed with potatoes, mushrooms, celery, onion and spinach – oh and Italian Sausage! Sausage & Veg Soup is perfect for a blustery winter evening, when you need to warm up from the colder temperatures. And it’s a slow cooker recipes so it’s prefect for any night of the week!

Slow cooking with red pepper flakes does really intensify the heat factor, so this soup has a kick. You can certainly lessen the amount, or could omit and add more black pepper. But you do need the balance of a peppery quality. Making a rue may seem a little odd for making a soup, but trust me – this is going to be so creamy, you will want to make rues with all your soups. And using the liquid that the sausage and vegetables have been cooking in all day gives you that extra flavor layer.

I use my slow cooker at least once a week, all year long. I try to plan it on a day that I know my afternoon is going to be hectic. It’s also great for movie nights (we usually try to see the newest movies on the first day – Thursday!) This makes it so that dinner is ready well before we need to be at the theater, but it’s still homemade and hearty.

As I mentioned, this is a seriously hearty soup. So you probably won’t need any real side dish. I just served it with Ancient Grain Baguette to sop up the creamy broth. Just warmed it up in the oven and then put a little butter on it. If you wanted to push this soup to feed more people (always a need in the holiday season), you could partner it with a salad, like a Caesar’s salad.

Now Let’s Get Cookin’!

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Sausage & Veg Soup

A mountain of vegetables with some sausage slow cooked for a hearty soup.

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine American

Keyword celery, chicken broth, crockpot, hearty soup, Italian Sausage, mushrooms, onions, potatoes, soup, spinach

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Slow Cooker Time 5 hours hours

Servings 6

Equipment

• Slow Cooker (at least 6 qt)

Ingredients

• 2 lb Mild Italian Sausage
• 1 White Onion diced
• 3 Celery Stalks halved and chopped
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Pepper
• 3 Large Russet Potatoes peeled and cut 1 inch cubes
• 2 cups Baby Bella Mushrooms sliced
• 2 tsp Garlic Powder
• 2 tsp Italian Seasoning
• 1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
• 2 qt Chicken Broth
• 4 tbsp Butter
• 4 tbsp Flour
• 2 cups Heavy Cream
• 2 cups Fresh Spinach

Instructions

• In saute pan over medium-high heat, add Italian sausage. Cook and crumble until no longer pink.
• Add potatoes, mushrooms, garlic powder, Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes.
• Using a slotted spoon, add sausage to slow cooker, leaving as much grease in the pan.
• Return pan to heat and add onions, celery, salt and pepper. Cook for 3 minutes. With a slotted spoon, add onions and celery to the slow cooker leaving as much grease in the pan. Discard grease.
• Pour chicken broth into slow cooker and stir to combine. Secure the lid and cook for 5 hours on High (or 8 hours on Low).
• In the last 30 minutes of cook time, ladle out as much of the broth as you can into a bowl.
• In sauce pan over medium heat, add butter. Once melted, whisk in flour and cook for 3 minutes. Ladle in broth, about a cup at a time, and whisk into rue. Once all the broth is added, add heavy cream and whisk together. Let cook another 3 minutes. Then add gravy back to slow cooker. Add in fresh spinach and stir to combine. Re-secure the lid and let cook for remainder of cook time.
• Serve in a shallow or soup bowl.