Kale & Kielbasa Soup

I make this meal when I’m incredibly tired and obviously need my nutrients. The best part about crockpot meal is how much you can make with such little effort. Coming off of a vacation and waiting for my next paycheck to kick in, I needed something that would truly hold me over.

My mom’s crock pot recipe takes the following:

• Turkey Kielbasa

• Italian Sausage links 🐷

• 1 can garbanzo beans

• 1 extra large carrot 🥕

• 8 small potatoes 🥔

• 4 cups kale 🥬

• 12 cups water

• 6 cubes chicken stock (or 🐓 broth)

STEP 1: First, I dice the potatoes and carrots and set them aside.

STEP 2:  Chop up the kielbasa. You can use pork, I just like to mix up my meats. Some people might not ant pork at all, I like it in moderation.  I like to cut my kielbasa in half circles. I think it makes it easier to hold on the spoon. 🤷🏽‍♀️

STEP 3: Take the sausage meat out of the lining. I don’t know why I don’t buy ground sausage (this is my mom’s recipe, but I think it’s because most Italian sausage already comes seasoned/spicy, so you’re able to  steal a bit of that flavor. Hot or Mild, your choice! I usually go with what’s on sale 😉

STEP 4: Cook the Sausage in about 1/2 capful of vegetable oil. If you’re fancy and have a crock pot that can fry, you can do all of this in one place, otherwise… you’ll need to pull out a skillet before you get to crockpottin’. I like to use a fork at first, just to make sure its really ground and chopped up. Then, I go in with a big spoon and bang on the skillet like I know something. You can put it right into the crockpot, from the skillet, when it’s nice and browned. This is how we keep the flavor 😋

STEP 5: Cook the kielbasa. Same deal here; Repeat step #4 & cook kielbasa until browned and then put it right into the crockpot 🤯

STEP 6: Add chopped stuff – potatoes, carrots & garbanzo beans to crockpot. If you find more/different things you want to add here, be my guest. It’s actually the first time I’m adding carrots 🧐

STEP 7: Add enough chicken broth to cover. If you don’t have broth, it super helpful to keep keep broth cubes on hand. Just add water to cover & 1 cube per cup of water;  used 12 cups of water and 6 cubes of knox broth cubes 🤯

STEP 8: Add Kale. I like to chop the kale up small (even though I’m rarely successful) so it doesn’t feel like I’m eating leaves. Then I lay it onto the water in the crockpot, so that it covers everything. You can add, to taste but that’s my measurement 🤣 My mom grows kale in her backyard, so I use tons because I need the space in my freezer now.

STEP 9: Add seasoning to taste. My mom is  Dominican, so we use everything in the cabinet, all the time. A thin layer of whatever seasonings you’ve got will do 👌🏾

STEP 10: Let cook on HIGH for 3 hours, on LOW for 1 hour.  If cooking OVERNIGHT, just put it on low and don’t worry 😴

STORAGE: I like to store my soup in large mason jars. Each mason jar gives me about 2 meals. This makes it easy to bring lunch for work every other day. I keep a pyrex tub to eat for when I get home. You can also freeze in mason jars! The smaller jars are better for freezing soups for individual meals. The small jars are also great for an on the go meal for days when I have shows of things after work. Feel free to cut the recipe in half is this is too much for you. I can eat the same thing for days 😹

buen aprovecho 💕