Spicy Sausage Pesto Minestrone
This healthy and super flavorful soup is packed with veggies plus sausage for some spice, and I've added gluten free pasta as well.
Ingredients
Soup Ingredients
- 1 t. Grapeseed Oil or olive oil
- Package of Sausage your favorite kind
- 1 T. Red Pepper Flakes or your preferred level of heat
- 1 cup Onion diced
- 2 Carrots diced
- 1 Celery Stalks diced
- 1/2 cup cut Green Beans frozen
- 1 medium Zucchini diced
- 2 cloves of Garlic minced
- 1 t. Dried Thyme
- 1 t. Dried Basil
- 4 cups low-sodium Chicken Broth or vegetable broth
- 2 cups Hot Water
- 28 oz. Canned Diced Tomatoes do not drain
- 1 can Cannellini Beans drained and rinsed
- 1 can Red Kidney Beans drained and rinsed
- 2 Bay Leaves
- Favorite hot sauce to taste
- Jalapeño Tabasco sauce to taste
- Favorite Pasta I used a gluten-free kind by Trader Joe’s
- 2 cups Kale ribs removed and cut into bite-sized pieces
- Pesto garnish (this is optional and I found a yummy vegan one at Trader Joe’s that I used)
- Goat cheese garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Get your minestrone started by making sure all of your veggies are cut, so they’re ready for you. Then heat a large pot over medium heat with 1 t. Grapeseed Oil. Add the sausage to the pan along with 1 T. red pepper flakes to make the sausage spicy, and then cook for about 8 minutes or until the sausage is brown. Then drain off any excess oil in the pot.
- Add the onions, garlic, celery, carrots, green beans, and zucchini to the sausage, and then cook for 2-3 minutes. Once the onions start to become translucent, add about a teaspoon each of dried thyme and dried basil. Then stir and cook another minute.
- Add the broth, water, diced tomatoes, bay leaves, plus the drained and rinsed beans to the pot and then stir. Bring the soup to a light boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for at least 20 minutes.
- While the soup simmers, cook your pasta according to the package instructions. Then when the pasta is al dente, drain it in a colander, rinse it with cold water, and then toss with a little extra-virgin olive oil so that it keeps the pasta from sticking.
- After the soup finishes simmering, add the 2 cups of kale to the pot and then stir and cook another 2 minutes.
- To serve the soup, add 1/2 cup of pasta to a bowl, ladle in the soup over the pasta, and stir. Then top with 1 T. of pesto and a few crumbles of goat cheese and enjoy!
Notes
Quick Tip #1: Be sure to make the pasta in a separate bowl, and then store it separately in the refrigerator. If you leave it in the soup, it'll cause the soup to become really thick. I like to store my pasta in a plastic bag.
Quick Tip #2: Keep it dairy free by removing the goat cheese and using a vegan pesto (I picked up a great one at Trader Joe's). Keep it gluten free by using gluten free pasta and making sure your sausage is gluten free.