Kale, Sausage, and White Bean Soup

A weekend of overindulging combined with the first chilly fall day inspired this soup. We had some sausage on hand and I wanted to eat some kale. This is super tasty and warming - great with some crust bread and butter. Feel free to scale down, this makes A LOT. (Lots of future lunches...)

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup with White Beans

This is a great soup for a cold winter day. Roasting the veggies first makes them a little sweeter and adds more depth to the flavor. Feel free to change around the veggies if you have anything else that might work - a rutabega, more or less of various veggies - it's pureed, so you can really experiment. I added the white beans to make it a little creamier, but you can omit if you want.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 leeks, rinsed and halved, dark leaves cut off

3 cloves garlic

1 turnip, peeled and cut into pieces

1/2 a small butternut squash, peeled and cut into pieces

Rustic Hearty Fall Pasta

Jamie and I had some sausage from Faicco's for breakfast on Sunday which inspired me to make a pasta with sausage. I love using sausage with Swiss Chard or kale, so I decided to make a fall pasta with Swiss Chard, sausage, butternut squash for sweetness, and some white beans (because I had them). It was a good Sunday night dinner and we had plenty leftover. I used orecchiette because Jamie loves little pastas and it goes well with sausage.

Ingredients:
1 hot and 1 sweet sausage link (can use more if you want)
1 shallot, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 bunch Swiss Chard, rinsed and chopped, separated into leaves and stems
1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup chicken broth/stock
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
salt and pepper
orecchiette (or your choice of pasta)

Directions:
Line a baking sheet with foil and preheat the oven to 450. Toss butternut squash with 2 tbsp olive oil, the red peppers flakes, and plenty of salt and pepper and roast until tender (about 30-45 minutes).