Italian Sausage and Kale Soup

Quick and healthy Sausage and Kale Soup for dinner! Flavorful Italian Soup broth with succulent chicken sausage, hearty beans and kale. This Sausage Kale Soup is a healthy, gluten-free, and an easy dinner recipe that whole family will love. Ready in 30 mins, start to finish. It is made on the stove top and has instructions to make it in Instant Pot or in the Crock Pot.  

This sausage soup is also as filling as it is healthy. A bowl of Sausage Kale Soup and you have a filling dinner or lunch. Plus can use Italian soup broth as a base-broth in many other soups. (read notes to know more)

Today's recipe is inspired from my Italian Minestrone Soup recipe. The broth of Minestrone soup is so so delicious that I often use the recipe as a base to develop flavor in other Italian soups and sauces. (including instructions in Notes to make this flavorful Italian broth)

Let's make Sausage Kale soup for dinner today!

Sausage and Kale Soup

Heart of good sausage and kale soup is in quality Italian Sausage and flavorful soup broth. I love to buy organic Italian spicy chicken sausage flavored with warm and fragrant spices. A flavor-packed sausage will give great depth of flavor to the soup. 

In short, for delicious soup, use:

1. Your favorite, good quality, Italian Sausage 
2. Chicken stock (preferably homemade) or good quality chicken bouillon.
3. Parmesan Rind (you read correct, parmesan rind)

These few ingredients make soup broth so delicious, you will be using it in many other soup recipes as soup base.

What do you need for Sausage Kale Soup

The main ingredients in this Soup are sausage, kale and white cannellini beans. 

To make a flavorful Sausage and Kale Soup, always start by sautéing sausage to render off fat, lock in juices, and also to release flavor of sausage into the soup. When sausage cooks and crumbles in oil, spices in sausage cook and toast in the oil, making a flavor-loaded base for whatever comes next i.e. soup, pasta sauce, you name it.

Tip: To preserve bright green color and texture of kale, always add kale in last 2-3 minutes of cooking.

Italian Soup broth needs some, easy to find, pantry staples. Here are the ingredients to make a delicious Italian Soup broth:

1. Aromatics - carrots, celery and white or yellow onion
2. Garlic
3. Olive Oil
4. Roasted Crushed Tomatoes
5. Red Wine Vinegar
6. Parmesan Rind
7. Italian Herbs
8. Salt and pepper

Parmesan rind, and red wine vinegar are two important ingredients that make huge difference in the flavor. I never skip these two when making Italian soup broths. Parmesan Rind gives soup umami depth of flavor and red wine vinegar provides right balance of sweet and acidity. 

Parmesan Rind for Soup

Any soup or sauce can get an instant flavor boast with parmesan rind. I always reserve the rind leftover after grating the parmesan cheese. In-fact, I even buy just the rind whenever I'm plaining to make an Italian soup. 

To use, simply add the parmesan rind into the soup while soup is simmering. When rind simmers with soup, all the aged parmesan attached to rind melts into the soup, adding a lots of depth of flavor. Rind itself does not melt. When the soup is done, fish out the rind and discard.

You can use parmesan rind or pecrino rind to flavor many Italian dishes. Specially the ones that require simmering to develop flavor. Parmesan rind will simmer with the sauce and add lot of flavor to dishes such as soup, stew, pasta sauce, raga, and risotto.

Don't discard the rind.When next time you buy a small block of parmesan to grate at home? Don't discard the rind. Don't grate the rind. Keep it refrigerated in an air-tight container. Use it later to flavor soup and sauces.

Italian Soup Broth

If you want to make and use Italian soup broth for another recipe. Follow the recipe as-is on recipe card, only skip adding sausage, white beans and kale. Please use good quality homemade chicken stock. Stock makes a lot of difference in the flavor of soup.

A few simple ingredients work magic and in 30 minutes you get a delicious soup with a hearty flavorful broth. Soup is also gluten free. Plus so colorful and appetizing.

Sausage Kale Soup in Instant Pot

It is equally easy to cook Sausage Kale Soup in Instant Pot. Start with heating the olive oil in Instant Pot at sauté setting. Add and cook sausage, aromatics as suggested in the recipe card. Pressure cook for Step-4 on high for 5 minutes. Once 5 minutes are up, release pressure and mix in chopped kale. Cook kale on sauté setting for 2 minutes or until kale has just wilted. Serve as suggested.

Sausage Kale Soup in Crock Pot

To make sausage soup in crock pot, start with heating half of the oil in a medium skillet pan. Cook sausage until no-longer pink. Break sausage with wooden spoon as it cooks. Transfer sausage to a small bowl. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Return no empty skillet to heat. Add remaining oil, onion, garlic, herb and continue cook until onions are soft. Transfer onion mixture to crockpot along with all remaining ingredients except kale and sausage. Cover and cook on low for 2 hours. Mix in kale and sausage in last 30 minutes.

Tips for Success

Let me quickly summarize the tips to make a delicious Sausage and Kale Soup every time:

1. Use good quality Italian chicken sausage. I prefer to use organic, spicy Italian chicken sausage. You can also use pork.
2. For a flavorful soup broth, don't skip homemade chicken stock, parmesan rind and red wine vinegar.
3. To preserve bright green color and texture of kale, always add kale in last 2-3 minutes of cooking.
4. For tomato based soups, always use San Marzano tomatoes. These are sweet and juicy and give delicious body to soup broth. Make a huge difference in flavor and quality of soup.

What is your favorite way to make Sausage and Kale Soup? Write a comment below and share with me.

Happy Cooking! -Savita