This soup is filling, as it’s full of fibre, and perfect for chilly nights! It also feels like fall harvest soup to me because it’s got leeks and Swiss chard which are plentiful right now at my local farmer’s market.
Even better, my kids love it, and they are not soup people! I blame myself for this, as I’ve not been a huge soup fan in the past, but I’m trying to change this, one soup at a time. Soup has so much going for it! I see that now, and vow to increase the amount of soup in our lives!
You can make this soup vegetarian by skipping the sausages and using veggie stock instead of chicken stock. I used gluten-free sausages from a local organic farm. If vegetarian, leave the sausages out rather than use vegetarian sausages, as most of the ones in the stores here are high in sodium and processed ingredients.
Ingredients:
4 gluten-free organic sausages
3 leeks, washed well & finely chopped
1/2 a sweet onion, finely diced 2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 bay leaf
4 cups chicken stock (I used homemade – should I share my recipe?)
1 19 ounce can cannelloni beans, rinsed & drained
1 bunch Swiss chard, roughly chopped with tough stems removed
sea salt & ground pepper
4 tbsp fresh chives, cut into small pieces
Directions:
In a large soup pot, swirl around 1 tbsp of avocado oil over medium heat.
Add the sausages and cook until just cooked (10-15 minutes).Remove the sausages from the pan and set aside.
In the same pot, add 2 more tbsp avocado oil over medium heat and add the onions, leeks, garlic, and bay leaf, and a nice sprinkle of sea salt. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring often, until softened.
Add the chicken stock and the drained beans to the pot, turn up the heat, and bring to a boil. I partially cover the soup with the lid at this point.
Once boiling, turn the heat down to a simmer with the lid still partially on the pot (with space for a little steam to escape), and let everything further soften, 15-20 more minutes.
Remove the bay leaf and discard.
Either use a hand blender and blend about half the soup right in the pot, or remove 2 cups of the soup and blend in a blender, then pour it back into the soup.
Add the chopped Swiss chard and cook until the leaves are just wilted, 3ish minutes.
Season the soup with salt & pepper.
Serve as is, or, if using sausages, ladle the soup into individual bowls, chop the sausages, and add to the bowls.
