Tuscan Kale Potato Soup

Sometimes, you might wonder - eat out or homemade? Don't get me wrong; I love to eat out. I love new tasty foods and that someone else does the dishes. But I've had an eye-opener lately.

Beth told me about a new app called My Fitness Pal. Well, it's not my pal. I don't even think it likes me much. But it does tell me about the nutritional value of the foods I eat. So I've been comparing homemade foods versus restaurant or store-bought foods, and homemade wins nearly every time. Whether you're comparing calories, fiber, sodium, protein, added sugars, fats, etc., homemade wins the nutrition game.

For example, this soup is close to a restaurant version that Walt loves. So I checked it out: calories about the same. But sodium! Holy cow! The restaurant version (and they don't give you the serving size. Hmmmm....) is 960 grams of sodium! Homemade - about 100 grams. If you have blood pressure issues, you don't need 960 grams of sodium in a serving.

So try this: it's a GREAT soup! And Walt loves it just as much as the restaurant version. And it's also really easy. I did find that the quality of this dish depends heavily on the quality of the Italian sausage - use a good quality sausage. You can also substitute half and half for the heavy cream. Even though the cream tastes so good. And I used 6 cups of non-fat chicken broth instead of using any water - it makes for a richer soup.

TUSCAN KALE SOUP
1 lb. Italian sausage
1 large onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" chunks
1 bunch kale, leaves stripped from stalk and chopped
4 c. chicken broth
2 c. water
1 c. heavy cream
Salt and pepper

Heat large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Crumble sausage into pan and cook until well browned.

Remove cooked sausage from the pot; set aside.

Add onion to the pan

and sauté until tender, 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper flakes, cook 1 minute.

Add potatoes,

kale, broth, and water.

Return the sausage to the pot, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes until potatoes are cooked.

Gradually stir in cream, add salt and pepper to taste.

So this is good, and good for you. Serve with some nice crusty bread and enjoy!