Sausage and Vegetable Soup

Autumn is here, which means that it's soup time! This Sausage and Vegetable Soup is perfect for a chilly day and comes together fairly quick. It's easy to modify too, you can make it vegan by just using vegan Italian sausage and vegetable broth/bouillon!

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Ingredients

8-10 qt Dutch oven or pot
1 lb Italian link sausage, hot or sweet
Olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 stalks celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
32 oz chicken broth or chicken bouillon dissolved in water
28-32 oz diced tomatoes
2 zucchini, around 10 inches long
4 c spinach, chopped
¼ c orzo, uncooked

Directions

• Slice celery into ¼ inch wide pieces. Slice carrots and zucchini into half moon ¼ inch wide pieces
  
• Warm up 1 Tbs of olive oil in the pot
• Place sausage into the pot, cook for 10-15 minutes until it’s nice and browned on both sides. If sausage is in one big link, leave it whole to cook
• Remove and let cool on a plate
• Add 2 more Tbs olive oil to the pot, sauté onions and celery for 5-10 minutes
• Once onions are a little translucent and celery starts to soften, add carrots and sauté all those together for 8-10 minutes
• Add minced garlic and stir
• Slice cooled sausage into ¼ inch rounds; remove casing before slicing if you want
• Add sausage to the pot and carefully stir so everything is mixed together
• Add broth and tomatoes, stir until well blended
• Bring to a simmer and let simmer to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally
• Add zucchini, stir in and simmer 20 more minutes
• Add spinach, bring back up to a simmer and stir – if fresh, cook it until it’s wilted first; if frozen, you can put it in semi-thawed
• Add uncooked orzo, stir in well
• Cook at a light boil for about 10 minutes
• Serve with a sprinkle of Romano cheese on top and some good Italian bread

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