Andouille sausage is a spicy sausage that I learned to love on trips to Louisiana.  Its smoky heat is the prefect the base to my Andouille sausage and sweet potato soup. One pound of Andouille is going to flavor this whole pot of soup, it’s some strong stuff, but by relying on that rich flavor we are going to get a really great pot of soup with very little work. Because we are relying heavily on flavor of the sausage this is not the time to buy yucky sausage, go for the good stuff with lots spice and high quality meat. If you don’t like Andouille you could easily adapt this soup to another rich sausage, I think some of the boutique smoked chicken sausages I see in the store might be a great option. If you try one drop me a comment and tell me how it worked out.

This is a big pot of soup but sausage and beans are so affordable that I almost can’t believe I got 6-8 meals out of such a small investment.  The escarole was on special at the farmers market when I went this week so it was even a bargain. You could replace the escarole with your favorite dark leafy green like chard, kale or anything else that is readily available in your area.  Lastly, if you home make chicken stock like I do feel free to use it in this soup, but this is a recipe where  it’s not really necessary  the rich flavor of the Andouille sausage will make canned broth taste excellent. I served this dinner with a crusty French bread and a spicy red wine but I think a dark beer would have been a nice option too.

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Andouille Sausage and Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients

• 4 large links of fresh Andouille sausage about one pound
• 1 really big sweet potato peeled and cubed
• 3 medium onions chopped
• 1 large shallot chopped
• 4-8 cloves of garlic smashed and diced
• ¼ cup drinkable red wine
• 3 14.5 oz cans of chicken broth
• 1 can red kidney beans
• 1 can white cannellini beans
• 2 large heads of Escarole diced into small ribbons
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Remove the Andouille sausage from its casings and crumble into bite size pieces in a large soup pot over medium high heat. Let the sausage cook fully and brown nicely. Once it’s totally cooked remove the sausage from the pot and set aside.
   
2. Deglaze the bottom of the pan with the wine and scrape all the good browned bits off the bottom of the pot. Then add the onions and shallots cook them until tender and slightly clear, about five minutes.
   
3. Return the cooked sausage to the pot, and add in the chicken broth. Bring the pot to a boil and toss in the sweet potato cubes and both cans of drained and rinsed beans. Let the pot boil softly stirring occasionally until the potato is tender, about 30-45 minutes. Test the potato with a fork to decide when it’s done.
   
4. Just before you are going to serve add in the escarole. You may need to work in batches waiting for the greens to wilt in order to get all of it to fit.
   
5. Once all the escarole is mixed in remove the soup from the stove and serve with crusty bread for dipping.