Do you ever get into a food funk? I do. Especially after Thanksgiving, it seems like everything tastes like Thanksgiving for weeks after. You know? Anyway. Thanksgiving is not my favorite meal, by a long shot. I don't particularly enjoy it. I hate to admit it...but I sort of agree with Zooey Deschanel when it comes to Thanksgiving dinner. So anyway, there were tons of leftovers and we ate them all people, because wasting food just sucks. So now we get to turn over a new leaf, eat something without turkey and mashed potatoes involved! And it feels SO GOOD!
But first, I need to say that I'm not good at prep photos. And I only have a phone for a camera until we can buy a new one, since mine decided to break down. So I'm going to do us all a favor and get better at finished product photos and forget trying to do prep photos. You're welcome.
Anyway! The soup. Fall and winter, to me, just scream soup. And you know what one HUGE perk to soup for dinner is? The cleanup is so easy. Your whole meal prep dish mess can be cleaned up before you even serve your finished product. That's my favorite. If I can clean up dinner before serving it, I know the rest of the night is going to be GOOD.
This soup was kind of involved, but it doesn't have to be, and it's so easy to customize. I'll tell you what you need, first.
So, here's where I made it complicated, but you don't have to. I made my own vegetable broth, because I'm cheap and I hate throwing out scraps. All of my vegetable scraps get tossed into a ziplock bag and put in the freezer, so when I need to make stock, I toss them under the broiler for a few minutes to loosen up those juices and then simmer them for a while on the stovetop. Same goes for meat, when bones are involved, just make broth out of the scraps once you've eaten the meat. It's so easy, and you control what goes into it. If you don't have the time or inclination to do that, by all means, just buy your broth. It's not going to hurt this or any soup you make. And I totally won't judge you. I promise. So, when I made my vegetable stock, I used scraps from garlic, carrots, onion, celery, tomato and lettuce. I added a few sprigs of rosemary from my little potted plant, along with a bay leaf and some thyme, and simmered for a few hours. The rosemary was very potent. If you don't do this on your own, just add rosemary when you simmer your soup.
Now that we have that out of the way, the soup is EASY. Chop your onions and garlic, and saute them in a few tablespoons of your oil of choice. Don't burn your garlic, don't brown your onions. You're just releasing their flavors here, the onions should get a little soft and clear and that's it. Add your mushrooms and sausage at this point. I used fully cooked chicken sausage from Trader Joes, so I just had to heat it through. If you use uncooked sausage, this part will take longer. Once your meat is cooked, add a cup of water, and then your broth. I used 1 cup of water and 2 cups of broth. Eyeball it if you need to - we need enough liquid to cook our pasta in, and have a little broth to spare. It's a thick soup. Add your herbs and spices to taste. My soup was heavy on an earthy, mushroom note - I used a lot of rosemary and thyme, and a tiny sprinkle of truffle salt to finish. Add your bay leaves (I used 2) at the end and stir it all in.
Bring the soup to a boil, and then add your macaroni. Here is another place you could customize to suit your family or diet. It would work just as well to use diced up potato, rice, or any other pasta you desire. Or leave it out if you don't want a starch. You'll add your kale at this point, too, so it doesn't disintegrate. Keep it at a rolling boil until your starch is cooked, if you added it.
Remove your bay leaves and serve once your pasta is cooked through. I served with some crispy bread and devoured it. Happy eating!
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