Rustic Tuscan Soup with Sausage and Kale

I have made this soup a couple of times now and Pete loves it! You could substitute crumbled "chicken" for the sausage and use vegetable broth instead of chicken bouillon to make it vegetarian. 

I buy my sausage at Clark's here in Southern California, it's "happy" sausage from a company called Mulay's Sausage Corporation in Longmont, Colorado. They don't use gmo's, nitrates, preservatives, etc, and the pigs roam free until they have that one bad day.

Ingredients

1/2 pound Mulay's Italian mild sausage (ground, no casing)

1 potato, peeled and cubed

1 carrot, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 bunch of Tuscan kale, shredded into bite sized pieces (you could use more if you like)

1 can of cannellini beans, drained

2 cloves of garlic

4 cups of chicken broth

2 Bay leaves, take out when soup is done 

Cook sausage in a soup pot, stirring to break it up. When cooked add potato, carrot, onion, and garlic; stir to mix. Add broth, cannellini beans, and kale. Cook for about 45 minutes. If you can make it a day ahead it taste even better the next day.

Serve with a dash of parmesan cheese grated on top with sourdough bread on the side. 

Guesstimate on calories is 350 for a cup serving with 25 grams of protein. 

Serves 5