T Stands for Sausage and Chick Pea Soup

 

My bad. I had promised to post the recipe for Sausage and Chickpea Soup last week.

The Young One shared with me a recipe she got from her meal kit so I can't print the exact recipe. As I've mentioned before, I'm a lazy, half-assed cook so here is the version I did. The soup got rave reviews from my Himself. The soup is customizable so use what you like best.

This can be adapted for the stove or done in a crockpot. I opted for the crockpot. How do you spell lazy? C.J. This will probably feed a family of 6 - 8 or a family of 3 Italians.

You will need:

l lb. of Italian sausage, chicken sausage, or sausage of your choice. I used Italian sausage with fennel.

Since the Eldest does not like Italian sausage, I also used 1 lb. ground beef.

2, 32 oz. of soup stock/broth. I had vegetable stock in the pantry. You could use beef or if you're using chicken sausage, use chicken stock.

Onion (to me this is optional as onion as well as garlic is an IBS trigger for me so I tend to use very little or to leave it out entirely, sauté it)

1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed.

1 can, Tomato paste (the recipe called for a couple of tablespoons, but I loathe recipes that don't use the entire amount. I had leftover jarred sauce in the fridge so I used that instead)

1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning (or to taste)

Salt and pepper to taste

8 - 10 oz. bag of spinach leaves. Himself won't eat cooked spinach so I left this out. I substituted a couple of cups of frozen, mixed vegetables.

Optional: 1/2 box of small pasta (Orzo, Tubettini, Ditalini, little Shells, Elbows) The soup as is wasn't substantial enough for me so I added the pasta. 

1.  Cook the sausage. I bake it in the oven until the internal temp. is 145 oF for pork sausage, about 40 or so min. at 350 oF. When cool, cut into rounds. Alternatively, you could squeeze the meat from the casing and brown that. But since I needed a way for the Eldest to pick around the sausage, I cut it into rounds.

2. If using ground beef, brown the ground beef until no pink remains. Drain.

3. To your crockpot add the sausage (ground beef),  the soup stock, (optional onion), chickpeas, frozen mixed vegetables, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, 

4. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 4 hours.

5. At the last half hour left of cooking add the pasta.

6. If using the spinach, just before serving toss in the spinach until wilted

Serve along with a salad and bread if desired.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.