I'm back with my CSA and loving the challenge of using what I get week-to-week. Every basket is an adventure!
This week 4 things really stood out for me.
Fresh pork sausage, onion, potatoes, and swiss chard. I immediately thought: Soup!
At first I thought the potatoes were just regular old white ones.
But when I cut into it I realized I was wrong.
After looking up the basket info on the site, I discovered it was an O'Henry Sweet Potato?
Yeah, I never heard of it either! But apparently they are a golden flesh, dryer, more sweet variety of sweet potato.
Even if you've never been a fan of sweet potatoes before—you have to try O'Henry. Unique flavor is reminiscent of nuts and honey, not at all heavy and cloying. Your mouth will be watering before you even get it out of the oven—while baking it fills your kitchen with the aroma of sweet, warm honey. Golden flesh is string less and slightly drier than traditional sweet potatoes.
Even better, I thought, something new!
I love when I get to go down uncharted food territory for me. Sometimes it doesn't work out but this soup came out AMAZING! Way better than I ever anticipated! I'm having a bowl right now and it's so tasty and satisfying. The sausage adds a wonderful flavor to the broth. The weird white sweet potatoes are creamy, delicious and compliment the sausage and chard perfectly. I haven't had a chance to give any to the kids but the Husband surprisingly agreed with me and he's kind of an old school chicken and noodle guy.
I'm going to share how I made it but remember if you don't have those O'Henry Sweet Potatoes available any potatoes would probably work. You could also take the casing off turkey sausage if you wanted to make it a little lighter.
Here's what I did…
Ingredients
- 1 onion chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic diced
- 1 lb fresh pork sausage
- 5 celery stalks chopped
- 3 O'Henery Potatoes cut into small squares (I left the skin on)
- 8 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 bunch swish chard
- Parmesan cheese (optional)
Instructions
Spray a soup pot with some non-stick cooking spray and begin to sauté the onion, garlic and celery. Add the sausage and break apart while it browns. Add the potatoes and continue to cook everything until the sausage is no longer pink.
Add the broth and bring it to a boil
I used 2 store bought low sodium cartons.
Once it boils, lower to a simmer and prepare the chard.
I decided not to put all the chard in the soup as it wilts and wilts fast! Instead I removed the stalks.
To remove all you need to do is grab the leafy part and pull upward.
I did this with each leave, then loosely shopped and placed in a large ziplock back with a paper towel to help keep them fresh.
When I was ready to serve I grabbed a handful of the chard and put it in a bowl.
Then I simply poured the soup overtop.
The hot soup wilts the chard perfectly without overcooking it. In my opinion this is the secret to soups with greens in them. You almost have to treat them as a garnish more then a major ingredients because if you add them too early they get overcooked and just make the soup look unappetizing.
That's it! I found a small sprinkle of parmesan cheese was a great compliment and my goal with every spoonful was a small bite of sausage, potato and chard all together.
I LOVE this combo!
Be prepared for more soup ideas. I'm obsessed at the moment!
📖 Recipe
Sausage Potato Chard Soup
Ingredients
- 1 onion chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic diced
- 1 lb fresh pork sausage
- 5 celery stalks chopped
- 3 O'Henery Potatoes cut into small squares I left the skin on
- 8 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 bunch swish chard
- Parmesan cheese optional
Instructions
- Spray a soup pot with some non-stick cooking spray and begin to sauté the onion, garlic and celery. Add the sausage and break apart while it browns. Add the potatoes and continue to cook everything until the sausage is no longer pink.3 cloves of garlic diced, 1 lb fresh pork sausage, 5 celery stalks chopped, 3 O'Henery Potatoes cut into small squares, 1 onion chopped
- Add the broth and bring it to a boil8 cups low sodium chicken broth
- Once it boils, lower to a simmer and prepare the chard.1 bunch swish chard
- I decided not to put all the chard in the soup as it wilts and wilts fast! Instead I removed the stalks.
- To remove all you need to do is grab the leafy part and pull upward. I did this with each leave, then loosely shopped and placed in a large ziplock back with a paper towel to help keep them fresh.
- When I was ready to serve I grabbed a handful of the chard and put it in a bowl.
- Then I simply poured the soup overtop.
- The hot soup wilts the chard perfectly without overcooking it. In my opinion this is the secret to soups with greens in them. You almost have to treat them as a garnish more then a major ingredients because if you add them too early they get overcooked and just make the soup look unappetizing.Parmesan cheese
Anne
I found this recipe while looking for a soup to use some pork breakfast sausage from my meat CSA, preferably with chard as the main vegetable. Almost all soups call for Italian sausage, some for another variety, none for breakfast sausage - until this one! I used it as inspiration. I used the chard stems in place of most of the celery, white potatoes, and 24 ounces of mushrooms. I used 6 cups of homemade turkey stock and the soup seemed a bit greasy so I pulled out some of the cooked potato cubes and mashed them, and added a 12-ounce can of evaporated milk. It still needed something so I added some black pepper - maybe a half teaspoon, maybe more - and 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce. Also salt, since with homemade stock it had none. My husband loved it! And I thought it was pretty darn good.
Katharine
I'm eating this now....although I made a few changes. I used Hot Italian Chicken sausage instead of pork. Added quite a bit of black pepper. Omitted garlic because I was out of it, Used 2 sweet potatoes and 1 russet. It is very good! Thanks for the wonderful recipe and the awesome website.
JoAnna
Yes! an Awesome combo... like a skinny-ized version of Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscano ( sans the cream) Atta girl Ronnie...
We are part of the "Good Food Box" here in Canada and I too am having fun with what we get each week which forces me to think outside my box. And what do you know? It's fun there!
Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family.
Krista
I was just talking to a friend the other day about chard and how it tastes like dirt to me. She suggested I try it in soup with a squeeze of lemon. And now your soup really has me wanting to try it again. It looks really delicious and has some fantastic, yet simple ingredients.