I have joked with my girlfriend Rebecca that we will one day open a soup only restaurant, how can we not when these recipes just keep coming to me? When I feel sick you can bet I’m roasting all the vegetables in my fridge and pantry and blending them up into a healing concoction. Bonus: I add turmeric, cayenne, and ginger to crank my immune system up to an 11. Soup is a simple food that can truly benefit our body, as long as we keep sodium and fat levels in check. The more whole foods incorporated in a soup recipe, the more nutrients the body will absorb. One night last week, after not feeling so great but wanting to eat something nourishing, I realized I had all the right ingredients on hand to whip up this soup. It has lots of protein and vegetables, and the surprise of the tangy green apple paired with the chewy parmesan “croutons” make this soup nutritious and certainly not boring. I hope you try it and enjoy! Now I need to move to upstate New York Rebecca!
Chicken Sausage, Shrimp, & Spinach Soup with Parmesan “Croutons”
1/2 yellow onion, diced
5 garlic cloves, smashed
1 small green apple, diced
1 cup red bell pepper, diced
2 chicken sausage links, thinly sliced
2 cups small shrimp peeled, deveined, tails removed
2 cups spinach or baby kale, thoroughly washed, large leaves torn in half
4 cups chicken broth
2 Tbsp. each dried sage & parsley
1 rind of parmesan
salt & pepper to taste
Coconut or Avocado oil
Put it together
Heat 1 tsp. oil in a large non-stick skillet on medium heat. When skillet is warm, add onion and sauté for several minutes, until onion starts to get tender and slightly changes to a translucent color. Add apple and sausage and sauté for a few minutes, until sausage browns. Add garlic and bell pepper; stir and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Transfer all the ingredients of the skillet into a large stock or soup pot and cover with lid to keep warm. Return skillet to heat, add a scant amount of oil if needed, add shrimp and cook, stirring often, until shrimp becomes pink and firm. Add shrimp to stock pot. Remove the skillet from heat and place stock pot on the same burner. Add broth, dried herbs, and salt and pepper to taste. When soup mix begins to warm, add spinach or kale and parmesan. Cook until the spinach leaves wilt. Remove from heat and remove parmesan rind. Slice the parmesan into 1 inch cubes. Divide soup among bowls and top each soup bowl with an even amount of parmesan cubes.
Makes 3-4 bowls