Name: Creamy Spinach and Italian Sausage Soup Recipe
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 50 min
Ingredients: 1 pound Ground Meat (pork, beef, turkey, or chicken); 1 teaspoon Dried Parsley; 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning; 1/4 teaspoon Fennel Seed; 1/4 teaspoon Paprika; 1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flake; 1 teaspoon Salt; 1 1/2 teaspoons Minced Garlic; 1/4 teaspoon Onion Powder; 8 pcs Medium Potatoes (peeled and chopped into 1-inch chunks); 1 pound Italian Sausage (browned, chopped, and drained); 4 tbsp Chopped Bacon (you can use bacon bits if you prefer); 1 tbsp Minced Garlic; 1 1/4 teaspoons Crushed Red pepper Flakes; 2 cups Half and Half; 2 cups Fresh Spinach

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In some areas, Italian sausage is easy to find, but in others, it may be more difficult to track down. No worries if you can’t find it. You can simply create your own Italian sausage using whatever type of meat is your favorite.

Traditional Italian sausage is created with seasoned ground pork, but if you can’t find that, you can use whatever type of ground meat you can find. Ground beef, ground turkey, or ground chicken all will work equally well as ground pork in this recipe. Of course, beef will give a more intense, meaty flavor to the soup, but that’s not all bad!

When you put one pound of meat in your pan to brown it, add the following spices to create your own Italian sausage.

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Creamy Spinach and Italian Sausage Soup Recipe

April Freeman

Loaded with flavor and color, this recipe is a warm, creamy soup that is perfect for cool days. Creamy Spinach and Italian Sausage Soup features the smoky flavors of bacon and Italian sausage, the spiciness of red pepper, and the savory taste of garlic. The potatoes give this recipe a creamy, buttery texture and the spinach adds bright color to the soup. This recipe is very flexible, allowing for various substitutions as discussed.

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Video Version

Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 30 mins

Total Time 50 mins

Cuisine Italian

Servings People

Equipment

Soup Pot or Dutch Oven
Wooden Spoon

Ingredients

Italian Sausage Ingredients

1 pound Ground Meat pork, beef, turkey, or chicken
1 teaspoon Dried Parsley
1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
1/4 teaspoon Fennel Seed
1/4 teaspoon Paprika
1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flake
1 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 teaspoons Minced Garlic
1/4 teaspoon Onion Powder

Soup Ingredients

8 pcs Medium Potatoes peeled and chopped into 1-inch chunks
1 pound Italian Sausage browned, chopped, and drained
4 tbsp Chopped Bacon you can use bacon bits if you prefer
1 tbsp Minced Garlic
1 1/4 teaspoons Crushed Red pepper Flakes
2 cups Half and Half
2 cups Fresh Spinach

Instructions

For potatoes, ordinary russet potatoes will do perfectly, but to add additional color and texture, you can use scrubbed, unpeeled red potatoes instead.
This will add gorgeous shades of red to the green and white of the soup. Also, buttery Yukon gold potatoes will work well for this recipe.
In the recipe below, fresh spinach leaves are used.
However, if you don’t have fresh spinach on hand, you can substitute frozen spinach instead. Simply thaw a 10-ounce package in a colander under cool running water before adding it to the soup.
Place the potatoes in a large Dutch oven or soup pot and cover with water.
Boil for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are fork-tender. Don’t overcook them, or they’ll dissolve into mush!
Pour off half of the water. You want the potato chunks just barely covered over with liquid.
Add the bacon, Italian sausage, garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, and a half and half. Stir to combine.
Tear the spinach into large bits and stir it into the soup.
Heat the soup until it is warmed through and the spinach is wilted.
This recipe fills my 4.5-quart Dutch oven about 3/4 of the way.
That translates to roughly 3 1/2 quarts of soup. It feeds my family of five very well, with a little leftover for lunch the next day.
If you have hearty eaters or a larger family, you can scale the recipe up by increasing the potatoes by one or two and adding an extra half-pound of Italian Sausage.
Serve the soup with a crusty yeast bread or a wedge of freshly baked cornbread.

Notes

Have you ever had trouble when you are cooking potatoes with the pot boiling over? Most people have had this experience, which leads to the frustration of having to clean up a huge mess on the stovetop. Not to mention, you’ll end up with the odor of scorched potato water in your kitchen for a few days.

Pots that are cooking pasta and potatoes boil over because the starches in the potato or pasta water make the bubbles more stretchy. The bubbles don’t pop as easily as just plain water and can create a huge layer of foam on the surface of the cooking liquid.

If you leave the room for just a minute, it takes no time at all for the sizzling on the stovetop to tip you off that the pot has boiled over. To prevent this, simply place a wooden spoon horizontally across the pot.

As the bubbles rise in the pot, they’ll come into contact with the spoon and pop themselves. Be sure that you use an older spoon that you don’t mind messing up, because the heat of the cooking may warp the spoon. Of course, this method isn’t foolproof, but it can definitely help you avoid the mess that comes with a pot boiling over and sputtering on the stovetop.

Keyword Recipe, Soup, Spinach and Italian Sausage Soup