If you are looking for a great, easy, warming dinner, this is the one. You can make this simple soup with inexpensive ingredients and have it on hand for a quick and easy meal--dinner or lunch. The soup comes together quickly thanks to a bag of packaged cole slaw mix and pre-cooked sausage. I usually opt for turkey smoked sausage, which is lower in fat than some other versions and still provides plenty of flavor. The soup cooks slowly on the top of the stove and is pretty much hands off, unless you want to give it a stir every so often and smell the incredible aromas coming from the pot. If you have late arrivals/aren't sure when dinner is going to be, the soup holds well on the top of the stove at a low simmer until dinner time. The creaminess of the soup comes from the potatoes included in the ingredients and from milk added at the end of the cooking time, not from cream. If you want a richer soup, you can certainly use half and half or cream, but I find milk works just fine. This isn't a fou fou soup. It's just simple, hearty, and really, really good. Enjoy!
Creamy Cole Slaw and Kielbasa (or Smoked Sausage) Soup -- Serves 4+
2-3 teaspoons of canola oil
1 cup of chopped onion (a medium onion)
1/2 cup of chopped celery (about 1 rib)
14-ounce bag of cole slaw mix with carrots
1/2 teaspoon of salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon of pepper, or to taste
12-ounces kielbasa or smoked sausage (turkey or other), sliced or chopped (I like it
chopped)
2-3 medium/large potatoes, peeled and chopped (about 3 cups)
1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme
2 teaspoons of dried parsley
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
8 cups of water
1 tablespoon of reduced sodium chicken base (I use Better than Bullion)
1 cup of milk (low-fat is fine)
Chopped fresh parsley to serve, optional
Heat the oil in a large soup pot and add the onion and celery. Saute the onion and celery for about 10 minutes or until they soften. Stir in the cole slaw mix, the salt, pepper, and the kielbasa and saute the mixture for about five minutes. Add the potatoes, the thyme, parsley, garlic powder, water, and chicken base to the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil, stir it well, then reduce the heat to a simmer and partially cover the pot. Let the soup cook, simmering, until the vegetables are soft and the potatoes are falling apart. Take a potato masher and mash the potatoes (in the pot) a little to thicken the soup. You can also use the back of a spoon, stirring the potatoes against the sides of the pot. Let the soup continue to simmer, partially covered, until the liquid is reduced by about one-third or the soup thickens to your liking. Just before serving the soup, stir in the milk. If the soup is thicker than you like it, you can stir in a bit more milk. Serve the soup sprinkled with fresh parsley, if you like.
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