So, it’s official – I’m a wuss. Was it just a short week ago that I was whining about the heat and wishing for some cooler weather? Well it’s here and now I’m freezing my butt off!
The sad thing is, it’s only getting down into the mid-40’s at night, but it might as well be Fargo in January as far as I’m concerned. And it’s embarrassing because I grew up in New England and would sometimes refuse to wear a coat out until it got below 32 degrees just on principle! I was tough, people! Now the indoor temp got down to 69 the other night and I had to unpack my Snuggie just to watch TV! Yes, I have a Snuggie. It’s hot pink, it’s warm and toasty, and I can’t live without it…don’t judge. I guess this cold intolerance means I’m officially Southern now. Maybe I should just stop fighting it and start saying y’all, drinking sweet tea, and listening to country music… yeah, that’s not going to happen.
Anyway, I realized that though I was looking forward to cooler weather, I was woefully unprepared for it. It only got up into the 60’s the other day and when I went to get my 5 year old son dressed, I realized he didn’t have any long pants that fit! He’s been wearing shorts for so long that he grew out of all of his old jeans. Now I need to take him clothes shopping so he doesn’t look like he’s expecting a flood. The problem is, if I take him in the morning, or at night, and he’s wearing shorts and it’s freezing, then people will think I’m a horrible mother. But if I let him wear his 3-inch too short jeans, I’ll end up on the people of Walmart website to be mocked by the entire interweb. I seriously considered ordering a bunch of clothes online, but then I have to wait for shipping and we won’t be able to leave the house for days. So my brilliant strategy is to shop mid-day today when it’s supposed to hit the high 70’s and he can get away with shorts one last time. But the window of opportunity is closing so I have to get going soon or wait for another warm day. First world problems…
So while I’m unprepared in the clothing department, one thing I’ve got down is this soup. I’ve been making versions of it for years because it’s so simple and delicious. My friend Becky introduced me to it and I loved it instantly. She made hers with white beans as the starch, and though I love it that way my new favorite is using sweet potatoes or pumpkin for the starchy component. It makes it Paleo friendly, colorful, and the hint of sweetness is so comforting. It’s low in calories, loaded with vitamins and antioxidants, and super easy to throw together! Not to mention satisfying and so delicious! I garnish it with red pepper flakes for a touch of heat, and a little grated parmesan cheese for a mouthwatering saltiness. I just can’t get enough of this soup – I made a big pot the other day and I’ve eaten at least one bowl per day since! Hope you guys like it too!
Turkey Sausage, Kale & Pumpkin Soup
- Yield: Serves 8
Ingredients
- 1 lb sweet italian turkey sausage
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 3 cups chopped pumpkin or butternut squash
- 4 cups chopped kale
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 4 cups water
Instructions
- Cook sausage in a medium sized saucepan. Add onions and saute until translucent. Pour the broth and water into the saucepan and bring to a boil – reduce heat.
- Add the kale and pumpkin and simmer until the pumpkin is soft, about 20 minutes.
- Serve hot, garnished with grated parmesan and crushed red pepper flakes.
- Category: Soups/stews
- Cuisine: Soup
Nutrition
- Calories: 118
- Fat: 6g
- Carbohydrates: 5.5g net
- Protein: 11g
Matt says
I seasoned the meat with seasoned salt, pepper, and garlic powder while browning at the beginning, and added traditional chicken soup seasonings after the liquids went in – more salt and pepper, marjoram, tarragon, thyme, turmeric, celery salt and celery seed. A bit of onion powder. Delicious! For my taste, while I find most of your recipes to be richly seasoned and very tasty, the brothy soups (as opposed to the cheesy soups!) are a little bland as written but really blossom with the addition of some dried spices. I’m a huge fan of how easy you’ve made everything to prepare as well, and the shopping lists are also very helpful.
I’m starting my fifth week, now on the Week 3 menu page – there was an awful lot of food for one person who isn’t very active in the summer in Week 1, and that fed me easily for two weeks. I nursed Week 2 to two weeks by making a little extra of some things like the breakfast pancakes and starting the ‘ham and cheese sandwiches’ a couple days early. Before I started the weeklies I did a week on the “5 day” chicken soup kickstart. I’m down a little more than 15 lbs since I started in mid-June, and 10 of those pounds I lost twice due to some weight gainback on very occasional “eat out” cheat days. My goal is to lose the 50ish lbs that will put me back at my pretty healthy HS weight of 30+ years ago. Budgeting now to replace my wardrobe this fall if I succeed, haha.
One last note: I didn’t believe the hype about San Marzano tomatoes until I accidentally bought the wrong can for my second batch of marinara and it was obviously, horribly inferior. I wound up tossing that batch after using less than 25% and doing it over with better tomatoes. Regardless whether Cento SM tomatoes officially ‘count’ as San Marzano without the official labeling, they have a hugely different taste than the Cento regular organic tomatoes and are worth the 15% premium.
Kerri D says
I couldn’t find turkey sausage…so I did chicken Italian sausage. I’m sure for Keto purposes my counts are a bit off but not by much! You’re recipes are AMAZING! I love cooking but needed to seriously cut out the junk. This soup was so filling and delicious. I also used butternut squash cubes because me and pumpkin just are not friends!!
Thank you so much for your recipes and the time you put into your meal planning! 2 weeks and 12 lbs down and loving everything I’ve made from your site;
Souphilia says
I am in New Zealand. We have turkey at Christmas but that is about it. There is no such thing as turkey sausage here at all.
We can get sausages (what Americans call sausage links) in a range of flavours, and some that are very low carb. We can get non-encased sausage meat, but it is genearlly carby with no flavours.
I have seen a few online recipes for home made sweet italian turkey sausage. I am going to try this one, but I am going to have to substitute the turkey for chicken: http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/sweet-italian-turkey-sausage-263842
I thought I would use boneless chicken thighs with skin on them instead of the turkey, as I cannot get turkey, and just grind them up. I could put in a little pork sausage with it, to make it more sausagey? I have some good low carb, well flavoured pork breakfast sausages. Just not sure. It is hard to know if your substitute is a close substitute when you have never had the original! I have googled for the macro profile of the original and I am going to try to get my home made version close.
Sophilia says
So I made the recipe at the link. I used about 400g of chicken with skin and 100g of pork sausage as my meat. I used stevia and sugar free maple syrup instead of the brown sugar (no brown sugar substitutes in NZ). I ground it all up in my food processor with the herbs and spices at the link. I cooked it off just now for the soup. It was gorgeous!!!! Really tasty.
I have no idea if it tastes as it should but it is really nice and it will be a nice flavour in the soup.
Jamie Meier says
Absolutely loving this soup, but I added the recipe to My Fitness Pal and I’m getting a hugely different calorie/carb/fiber count than you are. It’s putting me over 20g for one serving! Can you help?
Thanks!!
Mellissa Sevigny says
My numbers are accurate, MFP is notoriously inaccurate unfortunately – make sure it’s subtracting fiber for net carbs and not giving you total carbs.
Barbara says
I absolutely love this soup, I have made it twice this month. Once with Italian sausage and the second time with chicken because that is what I had.on hand. I added a bay leaf and a little garlic. This is one of my favorites.