We love soup at our home, and I try to make it most Sundays so we can have a bowl during the week. This past week, we’d bought a few packages of fresh hot Italian sausage to freeze, and before they went into the freezer, I grabbed a few links to put in my soup.

Typically, I’d add kale to this soup, but I had a ton of spinach, so I added that instead. Whatever you have on-hand would be perfect.

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 4 hot Italian sausage links (could use mild also), taken out of the casings and broken up into bite size pieces
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 4 celery ribs, diced
• 3 carrots, diced
• 8-ounce package of fresh, chopped mushrooms
• 1 tsp. each, salt, pepper, dry thyme
• 48 ounces of chicken broth
• 14-ounce can of pureed tomatoes
• 5 ounces baby spinach
• ½ cup dry orzo

Direction:

1. Heat oil for 30 seconds over medium-high heat in a large, heavy saucepan. 
2. Add the sausage and break up the pieces as the sausage cooks, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the onion, celery and carrots to the pot, turn down the heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes, or until vegetables begin to soften, stirring frequently.
4. Add the mushrooms and the seasonings and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Add the broth and chopped tomatoes, lower the heat to medium-low, cover the pot partially and simmer for 45 minutes.
6. Add the spinach and the orzo to the soup and cook for 10 minutes.

Makes 6 servings.