Tuscan Soup

I was craving a big bowl of soup and found a tasty looking recipe on the blog, Home of the Lazy Dog. It's a Tuscan soup filled with Italian sausage, kale and bacon and it was delicious! I adapted it to make it a bit lower in fat (using turkey sausage and 2% milk). It was still rich and creamy and so tasty. My sweet husband went to two different grocery stores looking for kale but could not find any. I ran to one other store and they didn't have it either, so I used green Swiss chard. It was an excellent replacement for kale with a similar texture. I really enjoyed this soup and so did the rest of my family. My daughter really loved the broth. I served with a tossed salad and fresh bread. A perfect meal for a rainy Oregon day.

• 3 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 3 Italian sausage links
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 5 cups of chicken stock
• 2 russet potato, peeled and diced into bite sized chunks
• 2 cups of kale or green Swiss chard, chopped
• 2 cups of 2% milk
• Sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
• Pinch of crushed red pepper (more if you want it spicy)

Cook the bacon in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Once it's finished place on a paper towel. Crumble then set aside for later.

Remove the turkey Italian sausage from the casing and put in the Dutch oven along with the diced onion. I made sure to really mix my Italian sausage so it was crumbled. Sauté until the onion is soft and the sausage is cooked, add the garlic, stirring frequently for 45 seconds. Add the chicken stock, milk, potatoes and kale along with the crushed red pepper, sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste.

Cook on medium low for 60 minutes or until the potatoes are soft and tender. Ladle into soup bowls and garnish with crumbled bacon. Enjoy!

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