Food Hussy Recipe: Healthy Sausage & Vegetable Soup

This post is sponsored by the Ohio Pork Council. All opinions are my own.

Recently I went up to the Bob Evans Grocery offices up near Columbus (and had some amazing recipes!) – and on that trip I came home with a big bag of pork! Since then, I’ve been looking for ideas with pork sausage – but here’s the thing – if there’s a recipe that calls for hamburger – boom – use pork sausage instead!

I came across this recipe for Weight Loss Soup and it looked pretty good but I wanted to jazz it up a bit to suit my needs. The thing is – I love lots of STUFF in my vegetable soup – so I added some items. It was interesting to see some of the “weight loss” properties in the ingredients: (from SkipToMyLou.com)

Tomatoes are rich in vitamin C and other natural acids that help your liver break down fat faster.
Beans can stabilize blood sugar which reduces the amount of fat storage hormones our bodies make.
Onions are loaded with chromium, which also helps with fat storage hormones.
Garlic might actually keep pre-fat cells turning into fat cells.
Mushrooms provide protein, vitamin C and iron.
Bell peppers contain beta-carotene, which gives you antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits

I love the versatility of pork sausage! Really anywhere you would normally use ground beef – swap it out with pork sausage and go – plus I think it has more flavor. Bob Evans has quite a few varieties to choose from with Original, Italian sausage, Zesty Hot, Sage and Maple sausage. The main reason I used it was I have 5 rolls in my freezer! I’m also on a little binge of using what I have before I buy more.

The rest of the soup came together with what was in my fridge – mushrooms are a must! I also had carrots, onions, black beans and tomatoes. Then I added ditalini pasta – it’s my favorite for a soup. It’s bite sized and no awkward biting off of super long noodles. And can I tell you – it took less than 30 minutes to make!!

What emerged was a delicious and hearty vegetable soup! Here’s one tip as well – when I make soup and add the pasta in – it soaks up all of the liquid! So a couple of helpful ideas for this:

Always buy extra V8 juice! It’s my secret weapon for tomato-based soups – if it gets thick – add a little more V8! And take a swig while you’re at it – that stuff is fantastic for you!
Cook the pasta separately and just add it in before you serve it! Especially great if you have leftovers – save that pasta out in a bag and add it before you serve. This way the pasta doesn’t have time to soak up all the liquid.

I hope you enjoy this great recipe for a Healthy Sausage & Vegetable soup!

Yield: 10-12 cupsAuthor: Food HussyPin it

Healthy Sausage & Vegetable Soup

prep time: 5 MINScook time: 25 MINStotal time: 30 mins

I love a hearty, chunky soup and this hits the spot!

ingredients:

1 lb Bob Evans original pork sausage (sub the Zesty Hot if you like it spicy!)
1 small onion, diced
4 Tablespoons garlic, minced
1 bell pepper, diced
8 oz button mushrooms, sliced
2 carrots, diced
1 – 14 oz can of diced tomatoes
4 cups V8 juice
1 – 14 oz can of black beans, drained & rinsed
1 Tablespoon cumin

instructions:

In a large pot, brown pork sausage.
Add in onion, garlic, pepper, mushrooms and carrots and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and simmer 15 minutes.
This soup freezes really well.

http://www.thefoodhussy.com/2018/02/food-hussy-recipe-healthy-sausage.html

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