Because I am, in all likelihood, about seven years old on the inside but old enough on the outside to know that this might never change, I’m just going to admit from the start that the concept of sausage soup makes me giggle. It also sounds kind of gross, don’t you think? Sausage soup.Hee hee. In fact, when it appeared a few weeks ago as Epicurious’ Recipe of the Day, I sent the link to my husband who, also being seven or maybe seven and a half on the inside, would totally get a kick out of it. But then–and I hope that this doesn’t mean that he is growing up on me, because that just will not do–he actually said that it sounded good, and that we should make it for dinner.
Well his taste buds–which cry for only tomatoes, salt, cured meats and chocolate–haven’t led us astray in the past, have they? Now that the weather has finally plodded into something resembling fall, soup season is officially on and what way to ease ourselves into it but with something hovering in the delicious middle-ground between broth and stew.
This middle ground is important, mind you, if you are the kind of person who likes your soups hit up with an immersion blender right before serving and your significant other likes them chunkier. This soup is a bit of both and to top it all off, it’s really easy to make. It’s exactly the kind of recipe you can choose to make late in the afternoon and still eat for dinner. It’s hearty enough to count as a one-pot meal, and instead of relying on umpteen spices for flavor, it coaxes them out of the sausage instead. I am impressed by its efficiency, and I suspect you will be too.
And now, back to hiding under two comforters and hoping the nice landlords will turn on our heat. Apartment living, I am so over you today!
One year ago: Creamy Macaroni and Cheese, Bretzel Rolls
Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup
Bon Appetit, October 2007
We ended up using spicy chorizo (yee-ouch!) but it played off the sweet potatoes perfectly, saving me from death by cayenne.
Gourmet note: This hearty soup gets rich flavor from linguica, a delicious pork sausage from Portugal seasoned with garlic, paprika, and other spices.
Makes 8 servings
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 10- to 11-ounce fully cooked smoked Portuguese linguica sausage or chorizo sausage, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices (Spanish chorizo can be substituted)
2 medium onions, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams; about 2 large), peeled, quartered lengthwise, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1 pound white-skinned potatoes, peeled, halved lengthwise, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
6 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 9-ounce bag fresh spinach
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add sausage; cook until brown, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Transfer sausage to paper towels to drain. (I poured off some of the oil in the pot at this point, but the original recipe doesn’t think this is needed.) Add onions and garlic to pot and cook until translucent, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add all potatoes and cook until beginning to soften, stirring often, about 12 minutes. Add broth; bring to boil, scraping up browned bits. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until potatoes are soft, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Using potato masher, mash some of potatoes in pot. Add browned sausage to soup. Stir in spinach and simmer just until wilted, about 5 minutes. Stir in remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Season with salt and pepper. Divide among bowls and serve.
Other options to consider: Kielbasa (suggested by commenter Wendy) instead of chorizo/linguica, adding a can or two of drained white beans or using more spinach. I love spinach wilted in soups and could have used even more.
Beautiful soup! And why doesn’t your heat stay on (or at least available) year round, rather than having to have a landlord turn it on?
Long time lurker, first time commenter. I agree that the concept of sausage soup does at first sound both funny and gross. But, it seems so easy, and your pictures look so lovey, I might just have to make this for dinner tonight! I made the butternut squash galette last Sunday night to rave reviews. I guess I’m starting a tradition of Smitten Kitchen Sundays!
Yay for soup! I can’t wait to try this, I’ll get Hubby-brownie points for weeks!
I made this soup right after I received my October Bon Appetit. This issue was just full of the best Fall recipes that I couldn’t wait to dig in. I made this soup with smoky kielbasa and it was fantastic. My husband raved and he doesn’t even like sweet potatoes. Figure that. Love, love, love your website and have passed it on to so many foodie friends. Thanks for your great efforts!
Your ‘one year ago today’ recipes are two of my favorites. I crave the mac-n-cheese when I’m feeling unwell…it’s the only thing that satisfies!
My [maternal, Hungarian] grandfather used to make hot dog soup all the time, it was his favorite dish. He’d sit in his chair with the pot in his lap and eat it while watching sports. It took me years to figure out that it was just the closest he could get to making goulash in this country at the time. Anyways, in that context, your sausage soup sounds great to me! Like a grown up version of Aba’s hot dog soup, almost – more nutritious, tastier, but close enough to get me all nostalgic.
That looks delicious. I am just going into soup phase. I’ll have to put this one on my list.
I’m kind of a soup freak, as well as a sausage freak, so this sound wonderful to me!
Jessica  Ha! It’s an old building and they have to turn it on first, which they are supposed to do the first time it goes to 50 or 55 overnight, but they tend to forget because it’s a small building and they don’t get a lot of complaints. However, I just ran to three (3!) stores to get ingredients for a tart I want to make so I’m all warm now. Phew.
Wendy  I forgot to mention that –Alex isn’t crazy about sweet potatoes either, unless they’ve been spiced up, but he loved this.
Danielle  Ooh, I want to make goulash. I bet you have a good recipe, don’t you?
I forgot to mention that I think this soup would be awesome with a can or two of white beans stirred in. I’ll add that now.
This looks delicious! It reminds me of a soup I made last week with sausage, sweet potatoes and that amazing dinosaur kale (I think it’s also called Tuscan kale or black kale–it was featured in this month’s Saveur.) Anyway, if you or anybody makes it again, I would suggest that as a possible alternative to spinach. It’s the perfect complement to the sausage and sweet potatoes. Here’s to soup season!
It just turned brisk here this week and well…. I love all things sausage. I think this just might have to be Sunday dinner!
my boyfriend absolutely loves soup and i love anything sausage so this looks great! i’ll have to make it once it gets a little colder…
I was trying to hold back from bringing this up… but when I read Danielle’s comment about hot dog soup I knew I couldn’t help it. While your soup looks amazing and I, too, appreciate that in-between broth and stew, the people in Berlin, Germany do not seem to understand this concept. My boyfriend and I were there this summer, trying desperately to fit in and not be overly-American, and we decided to order “Traditional German Soup” as it was labeled on our English-language menus. Well, imagine pouring about two teaspoons of chicken broth over stale croutons and sticking two full hot dogs in it. If hot dogs literally stick straight up in your soup, something must be wrong… We at the whole thing with the forks it was served with (in an attempt to not get yelled at by German waiters who, we found, were not always the friendliest) only to get hysterically laughed at later when our spoons were still clean. Was this some terrible joke on unsuspecting American tourists? I hope so, for the Germans’ sake.
I saw something similar in Bon Appétit – this may be the same thing. I marked it to make it. This looks so delicious and perfect for the fall chill coming around. :)
Deb.
I just found your blog a few days ago, and I have not been able to go a day since without the “smitten kitchen”. I felt like I had found a kindred spirit in the world of foodies.
I especially loved the comment in one of your articles about how much better food is at home, when you make it your self. My husband and I are both former professional chefs, and it is really hard to eat out any where here in our small Texas town. We only have about 3 restaurants worth eating at.
Anyway, the sausage soup looks delectable. I have a pound of smoked sausage in my freezer just waiting to be paired with sweet potatoes. I think my kids will even love this one.
Thank you for such a fabulously written blog filled with pictures that makes one want to get in the kitchen and create!
Yum!!! I recently made caldo verde(green soup) with sausages and I was amazed by the flavors from sausage that seeped out into the soup…made the soup very spicy and yum!
I just made a very similar soup this evening but in a different vein. Kielbasa and Chard. There must have been something in the air.
Making this at this very moment… using chicken chorizo, added carrots and celery (mirepoix), and I’m using cabbage rather than spinach!
Once, while having breakfast with friends at Perkins, I referred to someone’s gravy as Cream of Sausage Soup (well, it basically is!) and she was so grossed out that she couldn’t eat it.
I don’t see how that made Perkins’ gravy any grosser than it started out, but whatever. *snicker*
Sausage soup! Okay now that you have caught my attention, I must say that I am a sweet potato freak. The New Zealand native variety is called Kumara and I could not live without it – and yes it is great in a soup.
This soup was served at a party I attended the other night. My husband & I had 2 bowlfuls each! We could not stop talking about it the next day so I was trying to hunt down the recipe. Can’t believe I fell upon this blog – thank you for the recipe! I am going to make this for dinner tonight!
That sounds gorgeous, but since no one else here likes sweet potatoes, I’ll have to make it sometime just for me..
I have so many of those recipes that nobody else will eat. I need a gourmet by myself weekend.
Looks delicious and I suppose soup weather is on the way.
Sausage soup kind of weird? Heck no! My favorite winter soup to make at home is kilbasa and sourkraut. Gotta get the spicy kilbasa though. mmmmmm that clears up any sinus problems you have in a second!
I’m definitely going to make this soon. Made the butternut squash tart as a starter for a dinner party this past weekend–to die for.
In the meantime, I got this recipe 30 years ago from a woman we used to babysit for–who got it from her Polish-Irish immigrant parents. It’s delicious–and kids love it also:
Lee Anne Fahey Jory’s Polish Kielbasa Soup
1 lb. of Kielbasa (or whatever size that Hillshire Farms package is)
1-2 yellow onions
4-5 potatoes (some varieties dissolve into the broth, others don’tâ€â€experiment to your preferenceâ€â€do you like chunks or thicker broth?)
Beef stock
1 pound (or more) green beans (trimmed and cut in half or not)
8 oz container low-fat sour cream
¼ cup white wine vinegar
¾ of a lager beer
Milk
Salt and pepper
These are approximate proportions.
Slice the potatoes and cut them into bite size pieces (I don’t peel them but you can). Put them in a stock pot and just cover with water/beef broth. Start cooking on medium heat.
Slice the kielbasa in 1/8 to ¼ inch rounds. Heat a skillet with a smidge of olive oil and add the kielbasa. When it is half way brown add the onions. (I find adding the onions at the same time with the sausage overcooks them). When brown, transfer to pot with potatoesâ€â€with just enough water/stock to cover.
Don’t clean the skilletâ€â€instead add some water getting the extra fond from the sausage/onions. Add green beans to skillet and cook 5-8 minutes or until green beans are semi cooked. Transfer beans and their liquid to big pot. By now, the potatoes should be soft (20-30 minutes of cooking). If they are, add the sour cream, vinegar, the beer, salt and pepper, and milk (up to 2 or 3 cups depending on how much broth you like), and reduce heat to low. Allow flavors to blend 5 or 10 more minutes. The broth is deliciousâ€â€and not adding too much water to the potatoes in the beginning allows for more milk. I use non-fat, but any percentage will do.
Freezes well and tastes even better the next day.
I guess it is time to start making soups again. My husband is a big soup lover! I try but I’m just not as into it as he is. I’ve never had sweet potatoes in soup before. At least not that I can remember…
I made this on my blog recently–it is so delicious. great minds…
That looks delicious! Though just yesterday I used up the last of my yams AND sausage with completely different recipes – I’ll have to swing by the store to pick up more so I can make this.
yeah. sausage soup. hee hee. my husband and I are both juvenile in our sense of humor as well. ;P
this looks REALLY good to me. I make a sausage and potato soup that’s cream based and, therefore, not very healthy – I’d like to try something like this instead that is somewhat better. thanks for the recipe!
Oooooo Yum. That looks delicious!
That looks divine! I’ve never had sausage in soup before. I think it must be because they’re usually in my tummy before they make it into the soup..=)
such a warming and comforting soup!
hee hee;) This really does look good, I don’t really like sausage but this soup makes me think I might change my mind!
i riffed off your recipe and posted about it. i must say – it was amazing. truly delicious. thank you so very much for the inspiration. i hope you approve of where i went with it! wish i could drop you off a bowl for lunch!!!
Wonderful!
I was so excited about this yesterday that I printed off the recipe and stopped at the store on my way home — I didn’t end up eating until after 9, but it was well worth it.
I subbed in low-fat smoked sausage and doubled the spinach. I added a can of navy beans. I also used white sweet potato in place of the regular white potatoes, at least I think I did. They were in the Unidentifiable Tuber category for a while.
Wonderful and thanks!!
If it ever gets cold here in Los Angeles, that soup would be the best cure ever! Ah, screw it – I’m going to make it anyway! :)
this weekend I took pictures of the makings of Carmel Apples, I thought” What would Smitten Kitchen do?”
It was a crazy weekend, too much to do, 30 children to invade my home and barn to celebrate Halloween in the safest way possible. List of chores, laundry, and more cooking than usual. I stopped to photograph food and ahhhh…. peace.
I have to share a funny sausage story . . .
Once upon a time, I got a call from a to-be-unnamed ‘famous’ chef’s PR person who said, “Charlie (we’ll call him Charlie) would like to spend the day with you doing anything you want to in the kitchen.” I’m a big fan of cured meats, so I (jokingly) said, “how about we shoot a boar and cure its leg?”
She said she’d check with Charlie and get back to me. Sadly, the boar part didn’t pan out. Instead, I found myself in Charlie’s kitchen making sausage. The mixing and seaoning of the meat was just fine, but if you ever wondered what would win for “most uncomfortable task to do in the kitchen with famous male chef” . . . it’s stuffing sausage.
The soup looks great though!
Since I’m Portuguese, the thought of sausage soup just brings a smile to my face :) My parents just came to Pittsburgh for a visit and brought me about 3lbs. of linguica (and 5lbs. of salted cod). I was going to make the traditional “Caldo Verde” but may give the sweet potatoes a whirl.
There really must be something in the air. I, too, posted about a very similar soup yesterday. I made a Caldo Verde with kale, white potatoes and kielbasa. I would have used chourico, but it was raining and I didn’t want to go out to the store. I’ll definitely have to try it with sweet potatoes next time. Yours looks great!
Let me call my grandmother, and get her recipe for you. Nothing better than that.
This soup looks and sounds delicious – YUM! Do you think it would be freeze-able? I am a college student and like to make soups and freeze them when it gets close to winter. Thoughts, anyone?
Looks great, it could sound even sillier though – Imagine ‘Saucisson Sec Soup’!
Sausage soup sounds like something a seven year old would make as a kitchen debut, true. But sausage is sooo good. No, I don’t mean hot dogs (although I actually like those, too …), but knarly sausages with lots of spices. Hungarian, Polish, German or why not a Cajun. Great soup!
Ah, another feast to fulfill my phallic food obsession. Thanks Smitten Kitchen! ;)
I don’t know about elsewhere in the country but I have never seen Spanish chorizo in Californian supermarkets, just Mexican (which does not stay together). And it seems like I have a ton of spanish chorizo recipes that I want to try. Anyone have a suggestion?
You must try the Brats, Kraut and apple recipe in the same BA. It’s delicious.
Awesome, tried it tonight. My husband is not really a soup guy but definately a meat and sweet potato guy, so he loved it. Thank you for an wonderful recipe. I am new reader but love your site, your pictures are amazing and recipes are inspiring.
Today it actually was cold in LA. We just finished the soup (which I made with a bell pepper and onion chicken sausage cooked in the same pan as the bratwurst from last night, which was cooked in bacon grease), and my husband would like it known that there is much nodding and approving, with spoon-waving and symphonies, going on. I may add different greens to a later edition (we subscribe to an organic veggie service that brings us a lot of kale and chard), and I might want to add just a bit of wine, as well.
Now there are brownies in the oven (from Trader Joe’s — I didn’t make them), to be served with pumpkin ice cream.
mmm, yummy soup (stew). I added french lentils and it gave it a nice extra chewy texture that was only appreciated by the adults in the house. The toddler set would not go near this one. (guessing its the spinach or as my 3 yr old calls it, “euuww, seaweed”) I did trick a few of my kids into trying it out and once they had a little taste, they liked it. hmmm if only I could blind fold them at dinner sometimes…
great site, I’m having lots of fun drooling over/imagining/trying out so many great recipes!
i just made this tonight, but with smoked chicken rosemary sausage (with a 3 and 5 year old i can’t really do the spicey thang).
boy howdy, that smokey flavor was really, RILLY good with the soupd part. i’m now thinking about trying it with some pancetta or bacon!
keep up the good work!
I just made a very tasty variant of this, with Hungarian sausage and baby bok choy. If I get any good photos later today, I’ll post about it soon.
I found you via a friend, and loved the post and the recipe. Tonight I made a version of this with white fleshed American sweet potato, Chinese pork and duck sausages, beef broth, red wine, and young collard greens. Fantastic!
Made this tonight. I used Chicken Chorizo. While it was ok, it felt just needed more flavor & depth. So I added 1/2 bottle oatmeal stout, a pinch of pumpkin spice and let it simmer a bit more….seemed to round out the flavors even more. still, It doesnt compare in robust flavor to the pumpkin/black bean soup (nov.), which still lingers in my mind & palat. Dang, that stuff rocked! However, I would like to say a hearty thankyou for recipes such as this, so healthful and delicious… my idea of good eats:).
Yummo!! I will be trying out this recipe soon.
I just made this soup last night and it was delicious! We also used chorizo from our local butcher, but it wasn’t very spicy at all. Can’t wait to eat the leftovers!
Am I the only one who didn’t like this? Love your blog, but we ended up chucking most of this. I think if we’d used all white potatoes instead of sweet potatoes, it would have been a hit . . .
I cooked this last night as a delicious vegetarian soup! I substituted:
– Boca Meatless Italian Sausage for the chorizo
– Vegetable Stock for the chicken stock
I also punched it up a little adding some paprika and cayenne when I browned the sausage coins (I’d like to try this with red pepper-infused oil next time) and adding some white pepper and red pepper flakes to the soup right at the end along with the spinach. I kind of hate sweetened sweet potatoes and this is the savory dish I’ve been searching for to use up all my sweet potatoes and yams from my winter farmshare!
Most bloggers sound young. I am 80, but still love to cook. Since I am single , the neighbors love when I cook more than I can eat. I make my soup using a roll of “Hot” pork sausage. Brown it along with onions, garlic, a bit of any color peppers, and carrots. Add water and diced potatoes. Do not overcook! I add either 2% milk or powdered milk, add a bit of chicken soup flavoring, some butter and a bit of corn starch if thickness desired. I cook and drain kale separately and add it to the finished soup. People even ask If I will sell it. (No) I think I will try to use sweet potatoes next time. Enjoy reading all the blogs when I am not busy playing Bocci Ball or Bridge.
I made this soup sometime ago and fell in love with it. Some people thought it sounded weird but it looked so good I had to try it. I was right. Tasty. So much I even blogged about it on my blog. Thanks for the recipe Deb. I love your site.
Did you do this with Mexican raw chorizo or Spanish cured chorizo? I really like Spanish chorizo but think it can get tough when you cook it.
Mexican.
Remarkably easy to cook soup, yet very tasty! I added some corn and also the white beans as suggested(sorry, Deb, I know you don’t like corn unless it’s on the cob dripping with butter!) and used silverbeet from the garden as the spinach quotient. I will definitely be making this soup again!
I just made this soup tonight to welcome fall. I used Italian cacciatore and sopresseta instead of the chorizo as my little grocery store is Italian. It was so tasty and delish. I think the spinach makes it. I will definitely make this again, I can’t wait to make it for my mom.
I made this over the weekend and it was fantastic! I added a little more spice to mine (chorizo as the sausage, plus some basil, paprika and cayenne) just to kick it up a bit. My boyfriend didn’t see what all went into it, so I waited until after he had proclaimed that I “had to make it when his dad came over” (the highest compliment I can get) to tell him there were sweet potatoes in it! :)
Hi Deb…I’m a confirmed foodie and new to this site, but love it already!
I make a mean Hungarian goulosh (I was born in Hungary)….and my father 84 yrs. old has finally relented in saying that mine is very close to his wonderful recipe. It only took me 30 years to “get it together”
Keep up the good work Deb (love your sese of humour).
Edie
I made this last night with mango sausage (the family does not like spicy), two cans of white beans, and almost double the spinach. So good! Tremendous flavor and perfect for these fall evenings. Thanks Deb! Every recipe of yours I have made has been wonderful and spot on to your review. Whenever I have an idea for something to cook/bake I always check if you have something similar here before I search elsewhere. Smitten Kitchen is the best! Also, congratulations on the new addition, he is positively adorable.
ooo this looks amazing!! I am planning on making this sometime this week or the next. Can’t wait!! Maybe I will use Andouille Sausages instead??
Delicious! I used spicy chicken sausage instead to make it a little healthier and it turned out great, too. Also added the can of white beans to make it heartier. First recipe I’ve made from this site and I will definitely be making others!
This has become one of my favorite recipes on this site. I agree that it could have used more spinach, and would be great with beans, but overall, it was delicious!
This recipe was great! Are there any tricks to cutting up sweet potatoes though? This was the first time ever that I have cooked with them (crazy, i know!), and I found them very difficult to cut…But aside from that, the recipe was a snap to make!
just made this tonight!!
thank you so much, it was delicious. I added garbanzo beans and spicy chicken sausage! i love your blog!!
I just made this and it is amazing!! So easy and delicious! thanks!
I can’t get enough of this recipe. I’ve made it several times and each time I love it more and more. I use spicy italian sausage and toss in some mushrooms and pasta. I have it for dinner on Sundays and eat the leftovers for lunch all week. It never gets old!
This may be a stupid question but after all of the giggles about sausage soup I am a little nervous about googling anything to do with sausage at work!
I am in Alabama and thus don’t have the best grocery stores to choose from. No one has heard of Portugese linguica and I am even having trouble finding chorizo. My husband finally found some but I can’t figure out if it is what I should be using. It’s hard and in a vacuum sealed package, not soft and packed by a butcher like I was expecting.
Any advice?
Hi Ella — That sounds just right — it’s fully cooked. It’s also delicious — you will love it. If you have extra, chop it fine and scramble it into eggs.
As everyone has suggested, this is completely fabulous and even better on day two. Add a little bit of cinnamon (<1 tsp) and, if you like it spicy, a bit of cayenne to add a bit of depth to the flavors. Have I mentioned that I find this blog community the best ever? Props as always to Deb for creating it!
Since I found this recipe on your site a few weeks ago… I have made this soup a handful of times! It is DIVINE. Before we added the sausage (chicken kielbasa), we have been pureeing half of the soup, leaves a really nice texture. Loving the addition of the white beans. In addition, as a new mom of a 3 1/2 month old, I have to give you a long distance high five on your commenting rules regarding parenting advice. Love it! I have been making double or triple this soup to freeze and it thaws very nicely as well.
p.s. I was due Sept 24 as well (!) but my guy decided to wait almost another two weeks.
I absolutely love this soup. It’s nourishing, delicious and may be my favorite soup of all time! We added extra white bean and spinach. I had forgotten how wonderful spinach is, and this soup reminded me what I had been missing out.
Absolutely wonderful.
Awesome soup!
Found this site thru a friend. The recipe caught my eye because of the sweet potato. Usually I make fries with them but my sister doesn’t like them so I was looking for a new recipe.
We both loved this. Easy to make – I used kielbasa , not spicy (she doesn’t like spicy either). Don’t think this is going to be any leftover for my lunch tomorrow.
Yum! I made this tonight with turkey kielbasa, navy beans, and some red pepper flakes for spice. Definitely a keeper recipe.
Let me first say this soup is amazing! I made this soup tonight on a whim from having a much too lazy Sunday and needing something to make my day a little bit productive. Since I made this last minute, and since I live in Indianapolis there aren’t a ton of good resources for Portuguese meat (that I know of). Long story short, I substituted it with a white wine garlic turkey sausage. I know I could have used kielbasa, but I got really excited about the white wine garlic flavors. I know the texture/consistency is a lot different, but it kind of turned out like mini meatballs, and since I’m no where near a “good cook,” I really surprised myself and thought it was great! Thanks Deb for your amazing recipes and entertaining stories! I LOVE YOUR SITE.
What a great soup. Made it last week and loved it. Planning to make it again but was wondering if I could substitute chard for spinach. What do you think?
Faina — Definitely. I do it a lot in dishes because chard seems to hold up better while having a similar flavor profile.
This looks incredible! In New Zealand we are right in the middle of Autumn at the moment and I have recently become obsessed with spinach, so this recipe looks perfect!
This reminds me of the Zuppa Toscana from Olive Garden with the Kale, Italian Sausage and Potatoes.
i made this soup tonight — in the summer, in florida. odd, i know! it sounded healthy to me. spinach & sweet potatoes. :) it reminds me of a soup i always make called ‘zuppa toscana’ which consists of spicy italian sausage, kale, and potatoes. i added a little heavy whipping cream to the recipe and it made it extremely hearty and comforting. i highly suggest the whipping cream if you like your soups a little thicker and rich. thanks for this awesome recipe deb. your blog continues to give me amazing recipes to awe my husband with.
Your chorizo looks so much prettier than mine, I’m jealous.
The soup is delicious. I didn’t have low-sodium bouillon for the broth so I made a half-order with a full order of water and it turned out great. Wonderful marriage of tastes!
Deb,
I can’t seem to find pre- cooked, smoked chorizo or smoked linguica sausage anywhere! I picked up some spicy fresh, chorizo and fresh linguica. Do you think either of these would do the trick? Or is that smoked flavor essential for this soup?
LC — Use what you can get. Smoky flavor is always nice — you might try adding it back with smoked paprika or a chipotle powder.
Wow, just made this soup on a rainy afternoon. Definitely one of my new favorites. I added bacon and subbed the spinach for kale and am loving it.
I made this tonight, using kielbasa.. and honestly, I wish I’d used a different sausage. The overall soup came out (I’m sorry, kielbasa!) a little bland.. but I think I would’ve gotten better flavor if I’d stuck with the original recipe. I added about 3/4 tsp. ground cumin and a splash of red wine vinegar at the end, which perked it up nicely. Definitely want to give this another shot.. I love others’ ideas of using bacon and chard, too. And I kept resisting the temptation to add some vanilla to this, just to see what would happen. Maybe next time!
This is the first recipe I made from the site. Being 18 and not having much cooking experience I felt like I was doing everything wrong! I told my mom a week in advance that I was making her dinner and didn’t want to disappoint her (I love making my mom an actual dinner besides things like spaghetti), but all turned out well! It was so delicious, defiantly trying more recipes. I even did a blog post about it including your blog of course. cheers!
Had this soup at a dinner party- absolutely wonderful flavor with simple ingredients. We took the onions out so they didn’t burn. Has anyone tried to make it in the slow cooker?
Are the white skinned potatoes white skinned sweet potatoes? Or are they regular baking potatoes?
Good point. I’d say any white potato — or a yukon gold.
I made this soup last night and it was AWESOME. My skeptical boyfriend was even totally blown away. However, I accidentally got Mexican chorizo instead of Spanish chorizo and it worked just fine. The texture was more of ground beef instead of sliced sausage and it was amazing if you can’t find Spanish chorizo.
I don’t know if anybody said this or not (there are alot of comments to read through) but kale would be a good substitute for the spinach if you, like I do, have family members that hate cooked spinach (not me though, I LOVE it).
I made this last night with chicken andouille sausage. We all loved it, but I think I want to try it again with a sausage that isn’t as spicy, so that the sweetness in the sweet potatoes will shine through.
amazing recipe! I put some rosemary which makes it richer. Also I left some potato bits not as mashed, which allowed for enhanced chunkiness. mmmmmmmm. Thank you!
This recipe looks delicious. I am going to substitute the spinach however and use mustard greens instead. Sounds like a yummy dinner tonight. Thanks for the wonderful recipes!
I made a variation on this soup today which got rave reviews. I had some locally made chicken sausage with curry ( and hot pepper, it turned out!) in the freezer, so I used them as well as some small white beans which I had cooked for three hours, no soaking , in the rice cooker, and sweet potatoes. I left out the white potatoes because I used a lot of beans. I also substituted a can of cocoanut milk ( a favorite soup ingredient of my sweetie’s) for some of the broth and added Lots of spinach. WOW!
Delicious. It took about an hour and a halp to make though. (Course I am an inexperienced cook)
i don’t cook with pork so i just made this with merguez (and 2 cans of white beans instead of the white potatoes). wildly delicious and a great success for a cozy dinner party. i’m sure the flavorings are different than they’d be with the smoky pork sausages, but the warm spices and heat from the merguez went great with the sweet potatoes.
I have yams coming out of my ears from my CSA this fall, and have been desperately looking for something–anything–to make with them that’s not some kind of candied yam dish and also not bland. What to do? Why, check all of my favorite food blogs, of course!
So I found the recipe this afternoon and made it tonight. I used kielbasa (because that’s what was at the grocery on my way home) and it turned out great! I can’t wait to try it with linguica/chorizo, and all of the other variations mentioned in the comments. Yum.
A new go-to soup! Huzzah!
I made this last night. I used Andouille sausage from Trader Joe’s. My boyfriend and I both loved it. I was surprised that sweet potatoes were good in soup. Thanks for another great meal!
I made this last night and it turned out wonderfully. I made a few changes — adding some halved Cremini mushrooms, using a mixture of chorizo and linguica, adding double the amount of greens and using a 50-50 mixture of baby spinach and arugula. I also added some paprika and cayenne to punch it up a bit. It’s very tasty, but my greens wound up limp and soggy by the time the pot cooled. You must have served your soup right after adding the spinach for it to be so green. I think other more robust greens might hold up better — chard, kale, or even shredded Napa cabbage. Anyway, thanks for another tasty recipe!
Hello all!
I am in love with sweet potatoes and trying to find more ways to use them. I recently had a Sweet Potatoe Bisque at a Hawaiian Restaurant and being an amateur cook I am curious is anyone has any suggestions on where to start with that?
I’ve found some recipes online, but there are so many variations I don’t know where to begin.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated. (P.S. I’m a poor college student so once I make something I have to eat it all, for a week long before it goes bad. So I want to make sure its full of healthy things and tastes wonderful)
Thanks!
Chelsea — Which Hawaiian Restaurant? Totally random, but my SIL picked up a cookbook from one for me and I haven’t cooked from it — maybe I have the recipe you want!
Its called Fins. It is in Crofton Maryland. Very small place with absolutely amazing food.
Oooh! I was thinking that the restaurant was in Hawaii. Too bad Gourmet isn’t still around. They had a great section each month where you could write in and beg them to get a recipe you’d fallen in love with at a restaurant and print it. Seriously, greatest feature ever.
Made this soup tonight; fitting for this uncharacteristically rainy and chilly day. I only had beef brats on hand, but i added about 1 t pimenton, baby carrots (tis the season!) with homemade veg stock, and it was delish! Also, infinitely adaptable. Thanks deb!
I decided this summer to try to take up cooking and your suggestions have been great. I could not find and Chorizo for this so I used a sweeter mango chicken sausage and it was delicious, I also took your suggestion and added a few ounces more of spinach and it was delicious. I would recommend the sweeter sausage not as a summer dish, even though I loved it, but as a thanksgiving or winter comfort food!
For some context – I have loved this website since I discovered it back in the fall. Now that I have moved away on my own, I have been trying to cook more often, even though it’s only for myself, and this site has been my go-to for recipes. So far it’s been more rewarding than I expected to sit down to a home-cooked meal after a hard day – even if the cooking process is a bit of a learning curve for me. Your recipes are fantastic and your photos are beautiful, but what really inspires me are all the stories about your tiny apartment kitchen, because that is exactly what I am working with at the moment!
Anyway, I made this soup for dinner tonight; it’s delicious!! I added cannelini beans, and made slight variations to baby spinach, red-skinned potatoes instead of white-skinned, and chipotle chicken sausage instead of linguica. I am really happy with the result! Even better, last night I prepared and flash-froze a batch of the cream biscuits also from this site, and they are awesome for dipping in the broth.
Thanks for the wonderful web site – it really has encouraged me to try cooking! I can’t tell you how happy I was tonight when I smelled garlic and onions cooking in my apartment for the first time – reminded me of my mom’s kitchen.
I made this recipe for a trip to a hut in Central Colorado this past week. I was expecting cooler temps than we actually experienced, but this stew still fit the setting pretty well. I had never heard of ‘smoked Portuguese linguica sausage’ until reading this recipe, and then two days later I came across it at the local farmers’ market. I tasted it there, and was sold! It had a great flavor and wasn’t too spicy. I made the recipe as was written, up until the addition of spinach and the final tablespoon of oil. I didn’t eat any of the stew until two days later, when I re-heated it and threw in an unknown amount of spinach. It was wonderful, and the two men eating it with me also agreed. If I make the recipe again, then I will probably add a can of white beans like was suggested, and I’ll make sure that I get the full amount of spinach. Possibly mash fewer potatoes–once I got started it was hard to stop! I will also serve it with some fresh homemade bread.
I made this today because I’ve been yearning for fall weather in hot SC! It was delicious with about a teaspoon of tandoori seasoning to bring out the taste of the sweet potatoes! I also used arugula instead of spinach because I had it on hand- quite good! Thanks for a good recipe!
I am going to try this out tonight. My (new!) boyfriend is coming back tonight from being out of town and I want to fill his house with delicious aromas and a comforting meal to welcome him home. This looks like it’ll do the trick! Typical boy, he doesn’t own a potato masher, so I think I’ll just dice the potatoes into smaller cubes and hopefully they’ll break up a bit. Can’t wait!
Sounds similar to Caldo Verde, which I love! I’ll have to give it a try.
I live in Colorado and we got our first snow yesterday….just about a foot! I decided it was DEFINITELY a soup night. I couldn’t choose between your butternut squash soup, and this one…but I was in the mood for some meat, so this won. IT WAS DELICIOUS. Seriously…I will never eat soup without sweet potatoes in it ever again. EVER. (I also made the Peter Reinhart bagels from your website, which I will promptly be commenting on…as I will never eat store bought bagels again. You are single-handedly ruining my life, yet making it all better at the same time.)
This is the perfect fall/winter soup and so simple (compare to my other fav from this site, the French Onion Soup). It’s got the creaminess from the potatoes that keeps you warm. It’s got the hearty chew from the vegetable and flavor from the meat. Get sausages with as strong a flavor as possible, mine was generic and weak, so I added some chili powder or Indian curry powder before eating, much better. Chard can be substituted for spinach, but they don’t shrink as much and don’t have much water, so it was more like chard and sausage in sweet potato puree. oops, if substituting, less fiberous green and more liquid. Because I was cleaning out the fridge, I substituted the white potato with turnip, and throw in half bottle of hard cider (made the soup a tad sweeter).
Sweet potatoes are ok in a dessert, otherwise I hate it. But, I made it anyways because your recipes have been amazingly persuasive. I did not like it at the first bite, but it grew on me and before I finished the first bowl, suddenly I don’t mind the fact I made too much and will be eating 1.5 gallon of this for the next 5 days (yeah, too much chard). Seriously, your recipe have made me eat more healthy things I hate than my mom’s nagging/cooking ever did (=X).
The boyfriend was sick this week and still not ready for “real” food, but tired of chicken noodle soup. I pulled up Smitten Kitchen’s soup index and set the laptop in front of him. This was his pick. Here are the substitutions that I made that worked out great for those of you looking at variations.
I took a previous poster’s suggestion and used dinosaur kale in place of the spinach. However, I wanted to note that Whole Foods sells it under the name “Lacinato kale”.
I used a Mexican style wild boar chorizo as that is what I already had in the freezer. I much prefer the smaller pieces and softer texture of the ground product rather than the slices cut from a Spanish version.
I have made this soup at least 5 times already this fall and we love it. That said, here’s what I do: I leave the fat from the sausage in the pot before I add the onions. I took it out the first time and we all agreed that the soup was lacking in flavor. I think the fat helps a lot. We usually make the soup a day before, as the flavor is much better the next day. I have yet to find any linguica sausage, so we use a Boar’s Head spicy Italian salami or similar that I get in the cheese case at my grocery store. I add a drizzle of really good olive oil to each bowl when serve it instead of adding oil to the whole pot at the end. Thanks for the recipe, Deb!
This is so yummy! Just a note: the soup is not too spicy when using kielbasa. You could probably dash in some red pepper if you want it to burn!
I’ve made this probably a dozen times over the past few years (most recently, tonight), and just thought I’d add a couple of notes. I agree with Jill that draining the oil from the sausage rids the soup of some flavor. Also, I’ve subbed the white potatoes for additional sweet potatoes in the past, and liked it much better – adds a richer flavor. Thanks for a great winter recipe!
made this tonight. loved the soup and the only difference i might try next time is to use a more sturdy green, kale or collard greens (although collards may be too bitter) – i have left overs and the spinach will be way too soft she this is warmed tomorrow. once the spinach is in, it cooks very quickly – I prefer the texture to be more al dente/wilted. Such good flavor! used linguica and anduille sausage. along with salt and pepper, i used peri peri grind (Nando’s has a great one!)
will be making this again for sure!
I just made a lazy, low-cal version of this recipe with some premade organic creamy sweet potato soup that was pretty disgusting on its own. I added sauteed onions and garlic, a diced jalapeno chicken sausage, and a handful of baby spinach and it’s delicious. Thanks for the idea!
We made this Friday night, had it for dinner, and then had the rest for lunch on Saturday. Delicious. The Gentleman Friend couldn’t find any of the sausages mentioned in the recipe, so he went for andouille, which gave it a great kick that helped clear my sinuses, but I’m dying to try it with Kielbasa. The colors while it’s cooking are gorgeous. It also reminded me of the potato soup I used to get when I was studying in Berlin. Maybe I’ll try it with bratwurst.
Made this last night,…we live in Berlin and didn’t want to go spend a bunch of money to go out so we decided to make something from your site. We looked up “This Day in History” to try and think of a theme to find a recipe on and did you know that the Exxon Valdez crashed on March 24? So we went to your list of ‘Disasters’ and quickly got intimidated. So somehow we settled on this one, and since we don’t cook much it nearly still turned into a disaster, but alas, we figured it out and it was rad sauce. So good. Next time I gotta cook for some people, I’m gonna make this. Thanks and keep it up! I’m all pumped to try the Mom in law cabbage wraps next.
I know it’s summer and that I’m totally late on this post, but it’s been a breezy average of 70 degrees here in Baltimore. On top of that I’ve come down with a cold. I was dreading the canned soup aisle and I happen to have sausage, sweet potatoes and chicken broth on hand (and a willing husband helper). So excited! I am using beet greens in place of the spinach, since it’s what I’ve got (and I just really love beet greens).
XO
kelci
ANNNNNNND, it was the bomb. I also forgot to mention that I used some fresh Pork Sage Sausage I picked up from the farmer’s market on Sunday. Delish. Thank you!
I have a similar version that I make with smoked chicken sausage, sweet potatoes, and white beans. I love the play of sweet, smokey and spicy.
I think this is delicious….
food for the gods
My boyfriend and I are obsessed with two fall ingredients: pumpkin and sweet potatoes. This recipe hit the spot and was liked by my whole house. We had been away for the weekend, and it was easy enough to make after being tired, and tasty enough to fill us up. It made enough for leftovers and I’m looking forward to enjoying it all week. Thanks!
I made this soup and it was fantastic! I love the combination of ingredients- I subbed veggie sausage (of the smoky chipotle variety) and it came it out great! I love your website and peruse it weekly for inspiration. Thanks!!
This soup was wonderful! It got us through Hurricane Sandy! Even though we were not hit very hard it was nice to have a warm hearty soup when it was windy and raining outside.
YUM, YUM, YUM…Best soup ever! My daughter used mild italian sausage and baked them to cook them before adding them. We also used a can of white beans…sooo good!
I made this tonight and loved it. Hearty and tasty, and it was substantial enough not to require a side dish. I used Niman Ranch chorizo and chard instead of spinach because I like the way it holds up in soups. This is definitely more than the sum of its parts.
I found this recipe the other day after gleefully buying a ton of sweet potatoes ($0.10/pound, how could you not?!) and then looking at them at dismay when I ran out of ideas. Now, I’m disappointed I didn’t have more on hand to make this in vats and freeze it. I substituted spinach for collard greens and kale, and like some readers before me, used mild italian sausage. This recipe is definitely a keeper.
I am getting chorizo, sweet potatoes, onions and kale as part of my winter CSA and I think this may be one of the winning recipes to try. I am never disappointed in a smitten kitchen recipe! Will use kale instead of the spinach and since I am getting black beans as well, I may just include those! Can’t wait to give this a try. Thanks Deb! I am obsessed with your blog and now have my boyfriend hooked on it as well.
What a great combination. I used the linguica and ended up adding some chipotle powder, I would go with chorizo next time for the extra spice.
Don’t be afraid to add all the potato, it gets blended at the end.
Yum!
Totally amazing. Thank you. I made it with half Spanish chorizo and half turkey bacon and I was 100% happy with the result. The Spanish chorizo I got was not really spicy to my taste right off the log, but got very salty/savory after browning. I think that it might have been too much with 100% Spanish chorizo. I am, however, reallly wanting to try this with fresh Mexican chorizo!
This soup is delicious! I was on the fence about the final product right after it was ready, but today (second day) this soup has really come into its own. I added Sriacha hot sauce to mine and that gave it even more heat. My husband and I do not eat pork so we used a lovely turkey chorizo that was fantastic. So glad I found this recipe and site. Congrats on the book! :-)
Great base – I added extra spices (cayenne, parsley, mrs dash) and some Marsala wine. Wanted a bit more depth. Warm and yummy!
New family favourite; thanks! Made mine with elk salami as the sausage, used kale instead of spinach, and added a can of white beans as mentioned in the comments. Delicious!
Always my first fall dish! Absolute favorite!
One of my favorite soups of all time. Quick and delicious. It’s not quite spicy enough for me, though, so I always add a few dashes of Tapatio sauce to each bowl just before serving. Thanks for the great recipe!
Was looking to make a big pot of something this weekend and went to the fall archives and found this. Loved it. With all of the suggestions from previous posters I used crumbled chorizo and seasoned the soup with paprika, cinnamon and cayenne along with a splash of white wine. Used only sweet potatoes and added two cans of white beans and corn from two ears I got today at the farmers market (we still have corn in North Carolina!). Added a few glurgs of cream. Sprinkled some Parmesan on top. It was to die for and I know it will be even better tomorrow night. Thanks Deb, this one is a keeper!
Better late than never! My boyfriend and I made this soup for dinner and it was delicious. We followed the recipe exactly, using the linguica, and it had such a great flavor without being too spicy or overpowering. We will definitely be making this soup again. Thanks, Deb!
I found this recipe last night and tried it. I loved it. Very filling. The only change I made was to use Cajun sausage as the other types are not available in rural TN grocery stores. I will make it again with no changes.
I made this tonight, following the recipe exactly, except I used chipotle powder. I didn’t drain off any of the sausage fat. Instead, cooked my onions in it, and they absorbed all the flavour. It was a huge hit with everyone. Thank you for a great recipe!
yum! we’re making this recipe tonight but with a few changes: using veggie italian sausage and adding our own spices to compensate for the flavors, using veg broth, subbing kale for spinach, and adding some white bean if we are feeling extra hearty! it seems like we are changing a lot, but we are doing what we need to accomodate our vegetarian diets. excited to try it out, love your recipes! xo
I have a made a soup like this before, I think the only difference was it had spicy Italian sausage and kale. I’m looking forward to trying this one! I’m sure it will be delicious.
Have been lurking for a very long time and this is my first post. I tried to see if anyone has asked this question previously, but don’t believe I saw any reference to tomatoes. Do you think this recipe would suffer from a can of fire-roasted tomatoes, drained?
I wanted to try something different and a taste for sweet potato as well feeling a little adventurous. So I saw this recipe on Yummly and it looked good especially since I love spinach. So on a whim, I searched my refigerator and pantry but didnt have all ingredients. I substituted the sausage with shrimp and added red bell pepper. While it simmered,my house had the best fragrance wafting
Needless to say,it was delicious
I just made this and it is absolutely delicious, even with unpeeled sweet potatoes. Warming my belly on a snowy day in Oregon! I am an all-too-avid fan of smitten, have made dozens of your recipes, and have always been happier than imagined with the result! Plus, you’re hilarious. In fact, I think I’ll change your site to my homepage.
We make this all the time and I just made it using both italian sausage that I have cooked through and sliced (made by the butcher at the West Side Market in Cleveland) and dried Spanish chorizo. Loved the combo together! Also, I’ve on occasion used kale rather than spinach when that is what I have had on hand and it is wonderful with kale as well!
do you think this would work with vegan chorizo?
Marie — I haven’t tried it, but don’t see why it couldn’t work if you enjoy the taste.
Sounds really tasty this recipe. Thanks for posting.
Simon
I’ve made this soup several times with some variation. I just made it to absolute perfection, last night. I cook sweet Italian sausage and cut that up. I dice sweet potatoes and red-skinned potatoes and saute those with onion and coconut oil. The coconut flavor goes really well with curry powder, a little extra cumin, and a dash of cayenne pepper. I also saute a pound of kale and add that to the mix once it is softened. Pour a bunch of stock over everything, add salt and pepper to taste, and it is soooo delicious and hearty!
Made this tonight with what I had in the fridge/freezer…perfect for a chilly day like today! Thanks for the recipe!!
Made this tonight – added truffle olive oil at the end and it was exactly the extra kick of flavor this soup needed! Perfect Sunday dinner in January :)
Just made this while snowed in during NYC’s latest blizzard and it was perfect! I added a can of white beans and used kale instead of spinach (and chorizo since I couldn’t find linguica). I also added some allspice, coriander and red pepper flakes to amp up the spices and it was delicious. My only regret is that I didn’t make a double batch so I would have more leftovers!
I’ve made this recipe for several years now and it’s one of our favorite wintertime meals. I have some homemade chicken stock in the freezer just asking to be used so this is dinner tonight. I actually use a combination of hot Italian sausage (made by my local butcher at the Westside Market in Cleveland) and dried chorizo and it’s really good together. I also often use kale instead of spinach because it’s a little hardier.
Hi Deb! I have been making this recipe for years. It’s the best! My husband and I recently down on carbs, so I was wondering if you had any great potato replacement suggestions. Thanks!
I made this soup, and my husband is RAVING about it, being a total squash nut, and I love it too. It’s better after a day or two in the fridge, of course. Next time I’ll put in more spinach (as you commented, Deb), chop it a bit, and try fresh sausages. I used chorizo and, darn, overcooked them, so they didn’t give as much flavor as they could have. Great recipe for cold days, even if your super turns on the heat on time!
My husband and I loved this! We followed the recipe to the letter, using chorizo and adding white beans as suggested. We’ll add more sausage next time, but it was otherwise perfect. Smitten Kitchen has never once let me down.
I made this last night, practically 10 years after you 1st posted the recipe. Took your advice and doubled the spinach (2 bags of Baby Spinach) bc I too love wilted spinach in soups (the comments about al dente spinach really confused me bc you expect the spinach to “taste” wilted if you’re adding it to hot liquid). I loved the soup even tho I used kielbasa which I found disappointingly bland for this recipe. Took another of your suggestions and added a can of drained & rinsed Great Northern (white) beans. The doubled amount of spinach and addition of white beans is definitely the way to go. Of course, I’ll be making it again this time with the linguica or chorizo. Tho I live in NYC (like you!), I’ve never seen Portuguese linguica and would love to know where you find it.
One of my favorite things about your recipes, is that you often give us readers the freedom to modify to our liking (but with pleasant suggestions). Though I usually follow your recipes to a T, this one I altered a bit.
I used lean (not pre-cooked) hot italian turkey sausage and also substituted Savoy cabbage for spinach. I added the cabbage to the pot once the potatoes had softened a bit, lightly salted everything before throwing in the next ingredient, and added Hungarian paprika. Next time I’ll add the white beans, and add a dollop of sour cream at the end and it will truly taste like my Romanian grandmother’s homemade soup!
This is probably the 30th recipe of yours that I’ve recreated. Love them all!
Hi! Is this Soup good To eat the Next day? With the spinach?
I love this soup. I’ve made it a few times over the years and love it for how quick and tasty it is, not to mention modifiable. I cannot wait for your new book and look forward to your Seattle signing :)
How do you make enough for eight serves using only 6 cups of stock? Or are the servings really small, starter size, rather then meal size ?
Like a few other commenters, I made this with veggie Italian sausage and veggie broth. I threw a dollop of sour cream into our bowls and it was like a goulash. So yummy!
I’ve made this recipe a few times now and it’s wonderful every time! This iteration I used butternut squash instead of sweet potatoes and kielbasa. It was delicious and I’m going to work hard to make it more often!
OMG, delicious – even with my own modifications! Organic sweet potatoes on sale at Lidl this weekend. Committed to cooking with what I have for the month of January, so Googled sweet potatoes & sausage soup (okay, go ahead and giggle!) and found this recipe. Followed the recipe – sort of. Used mostly sweet potatoes, plus one large Yukon gold potato, to equal four lbs, fresh (actually frozen from the freezer) Mexican chorizo and debated whether to add one 6 oz bag of fresh baby or 9 oz bag of chopped frozen spinach. Frozen won out. Sliced frozen chorizo into coins, sautéed, added onions and garlic, added potatoes (not peeled – too much like work!), added chicken broth, added frozen spinach, salt and pepper. Ate dinner, then divided leftovers among pint Mason jars to freeze for those days when I’m too tired to cook. Give this one 5 stars!
This is a yummy soup! I made it tonight for dinner and it was a hit. Everything came together quickly and was very flavorful. I used a pound of fresh kielbasa (kept it mild for the kids) and added a can of cannellini beans as well as a bunch of chopped baby carrots. We ate it with some sliced sourdough bread. Thanks, Deb!!
Used normal pork sausage and it still turned out wonderfully. It was delicious as is, but I also added a dash of cream and apple cider vinegar for some more depth. Would definitely make again!
Best Ballons around here !
I made this morning adding the white beans as well as a little more spinach and set it aside to cool. Just got back from a 29 mile bike ride in, coincidentally, 29 degree weather and hand two bowls full. Hit the spot and warmed me up-excellent recipe. Thank you!
I have made this previously as written, with the white beans added. Yummy! Made it tonight, but a meatless version. Just omitting the sausage left it a little bland, so at the end of the cooking time, I stirred in 2 Tbsp of peanut butter. Perfect flavour boost!
This was delicious! I was only able to get Andouille sausage, so I added a half tsp of cayenne, smoked paprika, and black pepper to make up for the lack of spice.
I just made this soup. I think that the sausage’s overall taste/quality would impact the soup’s overall taste. I used a beef kielbasa that wasn’t as delicious as some of the other traditional pork sausages that I’ve tried. I think the soup suffered for it. Not that it tasted bad, but I think it’s missing some of the seasoning/oomph that it may have had with better sausage.
I used my immersion blender in this and I think that may have thickened the soup by releasing more starch. I also added some cannellini beans and spinach at the end. I could definitely have added more of both.
Had one last large sweet potato to use up, and thought I would try this soup. I made it pretty much as given here, with hot linguica (Silva makes hot and mild linguica domestically in the US). I did crush a lot of the potatoes in the end for a sturdy soup, and finished it with a tablespoon of olive oil heated gently with a few pinches of smoked paprika to drizzle on top. Definitely a keeper!
Delicious! I had to substitute andouille, and added beans as others had done, but great and yummy. Thank you!
Spectacular! I used Boar’s Head chicken chorizo extra spinach followed the recipe exactly
and it was fantastic!