Sausage and Potato Soup

I've been reintroducing healthy carbs back into my diet. I still don't buy bread or chips or, well, anything white. Since school started back I have cooked brown rice as kind of a go-to meal maker. I add a little tuna, olive oil, salt and pepper, and I've got a healthy lunch. I add some salsa and a over-easy egg (<3) and I've got dinner.

Potatoes are a food I only recently started using again with any kind of regularity. They're great sources of potassium and, in general, they're a great carbohydrate option (hence why my last recipe and this one both use them). I love sausage in soup form - it's so rich and flavorful and a little goes a long way. In making this soup, I actually use a roux similar to making a gumbo. I also thought it would be nifty to use to some soyrizo - for no other reason than flavor.

Suasage and Potato Soup

1 package soyrizo
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups chicken broth

1 package spicy bratwurst (about 5 sausages)
3-4 tbsp flour
1-2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped
2 bell peppers (red, green, or yellow will work), chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
2 medium carrots, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
5 -6 small/medium potatoes

1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

Okay so this gets weird really fast. First, I heated the broths in a pan and added the soyrizo, whisking to fully break it up. The result is a spicy, full-bodied broth that I cooled and chilled overnight to allow the flavors to develop. I used soyrizo, rather than chorizo, because it breaks down more completely and can "dissolve" into the broth.

The next morning I rendered the fat from the sausage, cooking it in the process.



I drained the sausage and left the 2-3 tbsp of fat in the pan. I added 1 tbsp of olive oil and the flour to make a thin roux. Cooking it for a minute until the flouriness was gone, I added all of the vegetables except the potatoes and garlic. (Who knew flouriness was a word recognized by the blogspot spellcheck - and yet blogspot is not?!)

I stirred and cooked the veggies for about 10 minutes or until they began to soften. During this time some of the roux had begun browning and some even got stuck to the bottom of the pan. I started to freak out a little bit, but I added in the soyrizo broth and the tomatoes. Once this got to temperature, everything that was stuck to the bottom of the pan dissolved into the liquid.



After that, I add the garlic, potatoes, reserved sausage, salt and pepper to taste, and about 2 tsp dried thyme. I let all of this just barely come to a boil. I covered the pot, reduced the heat and let it simmer for about an hour or so, until the potatoes were done. I skimmed excess fat off the top and bam, I had a delicious meal.



Now, I'll be the first to admit this is far from super-healthy, but if the Ohio winter has taught me anything it's that, sometimes, having a little fat in your meals isn't so terrible. And still, most of the soup is vegetables, broth, and crushed tomatoes so how can you go wrong?