Spinach and White Bean Soup with Chicken Sausage

I wanted to make something simple, comforting, and healthy for dinner tonight. For me, that means soup. Soup is a great way to use up vegetables that you have in your refrigerator that are about to go bad. It's filling, but not heavy, and it's a great weeknight meal. The vegetable I needed to use up was spinach. I had a large amount of baby spinach, and it had been in my fridge for some time, so I needed to make a dish that would use all of it. This is a very simple soup made with ingredients I already had on hand. It was so easy to make, and only took about 10 minutes to throw together, and about 20 to cook.


Spinach and White Bean Soup with Chicken Sausage

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion, or 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 2-14 oz cans of low sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup water
  
• 1-12 oz. package fully cooked chicken sausage (I used Spinach, Fontina, and Roasted Garlic Chicken Sausage from Trader Joe's)
• 1-15 oz. can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 1/2 cups (packed) baby spinach, roughly chopped
• freshly ground black pepper

-Heat olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they are soft, but not brown, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for about 1-2 minutes longer.

-Add the chicken broth, water, chicken sausage, and beans. Bring the soup to a boil and add the baby spinach. Simmer over low heat until the spinach wilts and the flavors come together (about 10-15 minutes), season with freshly ground black pepper and salt if necessary. (I used low sodium chicken broth because the chicken sausage I used was already quite salty, and I didn't need to add any extra salt to the soup)