As strange as it sounds, I was not quite ready for the weather to warm up – don’t get me wrong, the more than 70 inches of snow we had this winter I was more than happy to see melting away, but I really love soup season and will be sorry to see it go.  There are few meals I enjoy more than a bowl of warm soup when it’s cold outside.  The warmth and sunshine today on the 1st official day of spring made me realize that it’s about time to make one last stew before our soup crocks go into hibernation for the summer.  This recipe was very easy to make and was quite hearty.  I omitted half the salt the original recipe calls for and I still thought it could have used even less – I also changed the proportion of sausage to mushrooms a bit to weight it more towards the meat.  Accompanied by a piece of toasted garlic bread, it was a fabulous farewell to cold weather.  While I will miss soup season, I am looking forward to busting out my ice cream maker for the summer!

Sausage and Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:

• 6 links of mild Italian sausages
• 1 tablespoon  olive oil
• 1  onion, chopped
• 3  cloves garlic, minced
• 1 8oz package  mushrooms, sliced
• 7  cups  canned low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2  teaspoon  dried thyme
• 1/4  teaspoon  dried red-pepper flakes
• 2 tsp dried parsley
• 1 teaspoons  salt
• 1/4  pound  angel hair

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  Directions:  In a large pot, brown the sausages until they are completely cooked through (about 10 minutes), then remove from the pan and cool.  Add the olive oil to the pan, and saute the onion and garlic until the onions are translucent – about 5 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and saute for another 5 minutes or until the mushrooms are golden brown.  Add the chicken broth, thyme and pepper flakes, 1 tsp dried parsley and the salt to the pot and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes.  In the meantime, slice the sausage into 1/8 inch thick slices.  Add the sausage to the soup, and the angel hair pasta.  Let cook for about 3-4 minutes or until pasta is cooked.    Enjoy!

  Tags: Mushroom, Sausage, Soup

  This entry was posted on Sunday, March 21st, 2010 at 8:22 pm and is filed under Entrees, Meat, Soups. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.