Magic White Bean and Sausage Soup
 

This soup is super-filling, makes a perfect high fiber dinner, and is full of veggies and vitamins! Its one of my favorite winter recipes - just so satisfying. It has more than your daily fiber requirement in just one big bowlful!

White Bean and Sausage Soup - Makes 4 Servings

-2 cups small white beans, dried (calories for this ingredient are from my package of beans, not from the FitDay values - my package says 70 calories and 14 grams of fiber per 1/4 cup dry)
-water
-6 cups canned or boxed chicken broth
-3 Aidells turkey/chicken sausages (artichoke and garlic are really tasty in this, but they have a TON of varieties, most of which would work well. Pick a variety with around 150 calories per sausage).
-1 large onion, diced
-2 cups diced carrot
-1.5 cups diced celery
-6 cloves garlic, minced
-cooking spray
-3 bay leaves
-2 sprigs rosemary, fresh or dried
-salt and pepper to taste
-Pinch of chili powder
-Pinch of cayenne pepper
-4 cups raw spinach

In a large pot, cover the white beans with enough water to cover by 2 inches. Soak all day or overnight. Drain.

Add chicken broth to large pot, and add soaked white beans, along with the rosemary and bay leaf. Heat to a boil, then lower heat, cover, and simmer 1.5 hours or until very tender.

Meanwhile, when the beans have about half an hour left to cook, dice the sausage into small cubes. Heat a cooking-spray coated skillet over medium high heat and cook the sausage until the edges are crispy and the sausage is heated through. Add the sausage to the pot with beans and chicken broth.

Spray the skillet again with cooking spray, still on medium high heat. Add the minced garlic, carrot, onion, and celery. Saute until just barely tender. Add to soup pot.

Add salt, pepper, cayenne, and chili powder to taste. Simmer another 15 minutes, or until flavors have melded. Just before serving, drop in the 4 cups of raw spinach and wilt into the soup.

Nutrition Facts:

Calories: 341
Fat: 9g
Protein: 33g
Carbs: 59g
Fiber: 34g

Also meets over 100% of Vitamin A and Vitamin K requirements, 77% of vitamin C, 67% of iron, 30% of calcium, and a smattering of other vitamins and minerals.

Oh, my gosh, this is just what I need! Thanks so much! You always come up with some of the best recipes!

There is NO way I could remain on my healthy eating plan if I didn't learn how to cook low-calorie things that tasted good, of which I could eat fairly large portions and feel REALLY full.

A couple of notes:
-Buy a little extra chicken stock. If your soup turns out too thick (its more of a stew anyway, but sometimes it is really thick even for a stew) you can add more. Non-fat low sodium chicken stock only has about 5 cals per cup, so you're not going to add many calories by thinning it out a bit, and the portion increases a bit (but its BIG to begin with!)
-You are going to have to add a good amount of salt to get a rich-tasting broth. This will increase the sodium to levels that might consider high. If you want to reduce the sodium, you can use potassium salt, or extra herbs, spices, and pepper to jazz it up.

I'm happy to report I made the soup and it was wonderful!!! The kids enjoyed it also (but not as much as my homemade chili). DD was less than happy with the spinach and DS tried to say he was full to get out of eating it, but I knew better and after the first bite he ate the whole bowl.

I do have a question, though. My package of dried white beans (Great Northern White beans) showed calories of 140 per 1/4 cup dry. Perhaps you used a different variety? I think next time I do it, I'll opt for the lower sodium chicken broth. I didn't add any additional salt and it was rather salty (IMO).

I've made this before but the recipe was slightly different. I will say that it is an awesome recipe.

I should have specified on the low-sodium broth...thats why I made the comment I did about needing to add some salt to the recipe...I guess I use it by default because it has less fat than the regular chicken stock. Sorry for the lack of clarification in the recipe.

My package is labeled "small white beans". It is manufactured by BestYet, which is a store/generic brand we have here in CA

I didn't add any additional salt--all the saltiness was from the broth. I often buy the lower sodium broth, but my DH had brought home a case from Costco, so I used that.

My beans were a store brand--probably Vons. I guess I didn't look to see if there were other small white beans. Funny how you get it stuck in your head that small white beans = great northern beans. After I googled it, that is described as a large white bean! LOL

And after some google research of my own....small white beans are apparently "white navy beans".

When I made a similar recipe, I used Cannellini beans aka white kidney beans. I love them in general because they make dishes so creamy, almost cheeselike.

I made this the week before Christmas and it was SO GOOD! My partner doesn't like beans, so instead of using it for dinner, I made the soup on Monday and ate it for lunch every day. I had more than 4 servings and it is very filling!

I made this tonight and it was wonderful even my daughter who does not like most anything healthy loved and had seconds. I will be making this again :)

This looks great and I'd like to try it. I'm not sure if I missed it in your original post, but how big is one serving and how many servings does this make?

Thanks!
Lindy

Its supposed to make 4 servings, but we had some left over (and DS~age 11~Loved it!).

Thanks! Going to try it this week!

The potion is admittedly huge. I tend to go for higher-volume portions of lower calorie foods, just because they are more satisfying for me. I like to be able to eat a big bowl of soup without having to worry about it being crazy-calorie high.

I made this last night, actually! How weird that the thread got revived...