Italian Sausage, Kale and Tortellini Soup
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Sausage Kale and Tortellini Soup is a hearty flavorful soup packed with cheesy tortellini, nutritious kale and stewed vegetables, and tasty bits of herbed Italian sausage. A great dinner to cozy up to after a long cold day!
Tortellini Soup with Sausage and Kale
That time of year has come too quickly – the time where I’ve had this cold for two weeks and the only thing I want to eat is soup. Speaking of I need some breakfast soups in my life. Are those a thing? They should be.
So this soup, it is similar to some of the other tortellini soup recipes I’ve made, like this Spinach Tomato and Garlic Tortellini Soup and this Tuscan Tortellini Soup, but of course, this one has plenty of meat. And my husband is not complaining!
This soup is a breeze to make and it’s a soup you’ll want to make again and again. I mean it has tortellini, how could it go wrong? I could live on tortellini, I absolutely love the stuff and it makes for some of the best soups!
Sausage Tortellini Soup Substitutions
If you happen to have some fresh Italian herbs on hand like basil, thyme, marjoram, oregano, or rosemary you can use some of those in place of some of the Italian blend to add more fresh flavor. But since it’s fall I decided to just go with the dried herbs because that’s likely what most of you have on hand right now.
Using the Italian herb blend worked perfectly for this soup rather than listing out 5 or 6 different herbs to add to the soup. You can also add red pepper flakes for some heat! Adding a parmesan rind is the traditional way to flavor Italian soups, and I highly recommend it!
You can swap the pork sausage with ground beef, ground turkey, turkey sausage, or no meat at all if you want it to be vegetarian. To keep it gluten-free you can find special tortellini or leave the pasta out altogether. Don’t have kale? Fresh baby spinach works well, too!
Add heavy cream toward the end of simmering to make this a creamy sausage tortellini soup.
This hearty soup is just the comfort food I needed today and I can’t wait to make it again! I hope you enjoy it too!
More Delicious Soup Recipes to Try!
- Minestrone
- Pasta e Fagioli Soup
- 5 Ingredient Tomato Soup
- Tortellini Chicken Noodle Soup
- Chicken Gnocchi Soup
- Italian Wedding Soup
Follow Cooking Classy
Italian Sausage, Kale and Tortellini Soup
Ingredients
- 16 oz mild or hot italian sausage (pork or turkey), removed from casings
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion (1 medium)
- 1 1/3 cups chopped carrots (3 medium)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 5 cups low-sodium beef broth
- 2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes
- 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
- 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 9 oz refrigerated three cheese tortellini
- 2 cups packed chopped kale (thick ribs removed)
- Finely shredded parmesan cheese , for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Crumble sausage into pot and brown, stirring and breaking up sausage occasionally, until cooked through.
- Drain sausage onto a plate lined with several layers of paper towels while reserving 1 Tbsp rendered fat in pot (if there's not a tbsp just add 1 more tbsp olive oil to pot).
- Add onions and carrots and saute 3 minutes then add garlic and saute 1 minute longer.
- Stir in beef broth, tomatoes, tomato sauce, Italian seasoning and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Bring to a light boil, return sausage to pot, cover pot and reduce heat to medium-low and allow to simmer until carrots are nearly tender, about 15 minutes.
- Stir in tortellini and kale then cover and cook 7 - 9 minutes longer. Serve warm with parmesan cheese if desired (note that as the soup rests the tortellini will absorb more broth so you can add more broth or water to thin as desired).