Love My Slow Cooker: White Bean Soup with Italian Sausage and Kale

I’m a sucker for slow cookers these days. Recipes I can throw in the crockpot in the morning and come home to in the evening are the best.

It’s like I have a personal chef who is preparing dinner for me while I’m on my way home from work. The house smells great and the food is ready to scoop and serve. I don't know why I never did this much before this year!

This week, I tried out a recipe I found from Real Simple, Slow-Cooker White Bean Soup with Andouille and Collards.

Here’s what the recipe calls for, and here's how I changed it:

• 1 lb. dry white beans
• Italian sausage. I used our stockpile of venison-pork Italian sausage links for this recipe. My husband says to double what the recipe calls for. I used 4 full-size sausages originally (bratwurst-sized). So I would add 2-4 to that if you want the meat to be proportional to the beans. I precooked the sausage in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
• Onion
• Celery
• Dried thyme. I used what looked right. Probably a TBSP.
• 6 cups chicken broth. I was limited by the size of my crockpot, but honestly, I think the thickness of the soup worked!
• A bunch of kale. This is a recommendation of the original recipe, and I took it. The kale was good.
• No red wine vinegar. I forgot to add it. But it still tasted just fine with the additional spices I added.
• Salt and pepper
• 2 TSP cayenne pepper (or to taste). This was a great addition to the recipe. Probably because I used Italian sausage, the recipe didn’t have enough kick. I added the cayenne pepper and it was just about right! 
•  Garlic powder, to taste.

Throw everything in in the morning, except the kale. I also just did light seasoning in the morning and left the heavy seasoning for that evening.

The kale is added about 20 minutes before serving, while the crockpot is still on low. I cooked for about 7 hours on low. The liquid had definitely cooked down over that time, so I added about 3/4 cup to a cup of water when I got home from work. It was then that I added the cayenne pepper, salt, pepper and garlic powder in decent quantities.

Mixing in the kale about 20 minutes before serving. Looks like a lot
when you first throw it on, but it cooks down quickly! Make sure to chop it into
smaller pieces, and not into strips. Easier to eat that way.

A messy picture of the result after the kale cooked down.
It was great and my husband went back for thirds!

If you like this recipe, you'll also like this Olive Garden-inspired recipe I tried last year and frequently make: Sausage, potato and kale soup.