Best Kale Soup Recipe with Sausage – A hearty soup filled with nutritious and delicious ingredients. Each slurp is filled with bold Italian flavors, tasty pork sausage, and chunks of vegetables and kale. Cook it on the stovetop or in a slow cooker.
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This nutritious and delicious kale soup with sausage is so hearty and comforting on a cold day. Full of fresh vegetables, Italian seasonings, lots of kale, and pork sausage, this is bound to become a new family favorite. Better yet, it can be made on the stove in about 30 minutes or you can set it and forget it in a slow cooker.
The Italian flavors in this sausage kale soup only get better over time. Store the leftovers and enjoy them for weekday lunches, or easily freeze a batch so you can have a delicious meal ready in a pinch. A bowl of this soup is so warming and filling, it’s perfect for both lunches and dinners.
What Kind of Sausage is Best for Kale Soup?
I used sweet Italian pork sausages with the casings removed to compliment all of the herbs and vegetables in this recipe. Different types of sausages will change the flavor profile of the soup, so be careful with what you choose. To cut down on the fat, you can use turkey sausages or a plant-based meat alternative.
How Long to Cook Kale in Soup
Kale takes almost no time to cook! When the kale is stirred into the soup during the last 5 minutes of cooking, the heat will wilt the leaves and you’ll be ready to serve the soup.
What You’ll Need to Make the Best Kale Soup
The ingredients in this soup recipe with kale are simple, inexpensive, and versatile. Feel free to add in more of your favorites or mix it up by adding different vegetables, meats, or seasonings. These are the ingredients you’ll need:
- Chopped kale
- Sweet Italian pork sausages
- Chicken broth (homemade or storebought)
- Onion and garlic
- Celery and carrots
- Italian seasoning
- Red pepper flakes
- Potato
- A bay leaf
How to Make Kale Soup on the Stove
Step 1: First, saute the onion in a large pot with some oil over medium heat.
Step 2: Once it’s golden and fragrant, add in the sausage and cook until browned.
Step 3: Add the garlic, celery, carrots, and seasonings and saute until the veggies are tender.
Step 4: Pour in the broth, potato and add the bay leaf. Bring the soup up to a boil, then let it simmer for 15 minutes.
Step 5: To finish, stir in the kale and simmer until it’s wilted. Serve and enjoy!
How to Make This Kale Soup Recipe in a Crock Pot
Step 1: First, saute the onion in a large skillet on the stove with some oil over medium heat. As soon as it’s ready, add in the sausage and cook until browned.
Step 2: Now, add the onion and sausage mixture, the vegetables, seasonings, broth, and the bay leaf into the bowl of a slow cooker.
Step 3: Next, cook on high for 6 hours or low for 8 hours.
Step 4: Lastly, when the soup is ready, stir in the kale and let it cook for another 5 minutes or until the leaves have wilted. Serve and enjoy!
Tips and Substitutions
- Don’t have kale at home? Feel free to swap it with spinach instead.
- Add as many extra vegetables, legumes, or beans as you like. This soup would be delicious with chunks of white or sweet potatoes, cooked chickpeas or lentils, and canned diced tomatoes.
- To make this soup vegan or vegetarian-friendly, swap the sausage for a plant-based meat alternative and use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.
- Make your own homemade chicken broth or beef bone broth to add heaps of fresh flavors to this meal.
- Serve each bowl of soup with parmesan cheese on top, with a slice of fresh bread, or next to a warm panini sandwich.
Storing, Freezing, and Reheating
Store your leftovers in sealed containers in the fridge. The soup should stay fresh for about 4 or 5 days.
To freeze kale soup, keep it in a sealed container or zip bag. It can be frozen for up to 3 months. You can thaw the frozen soup by leaving it in the fridge overnight or reheating it right from frozen.
You can reheat the chilled or frozen soup for a few minutes in the microwave (stirring in between each minute) or in a pot on the stove over medium heat.
More Delicious Soup Recipes
Split Pea Soup With Smoked Turkey
Sausage Kale Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 lb sweet Italian pork sausage casing removed or use regular mild Italian sausage
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped or minced
- 3 celery sticks sliced
- 2 carrots cubed
- 1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes or to taste
- salt and pepper to taste
- 10 cups chicken broth I used homemade or use low-sodium store-bought
- 3 medium potatoes peeled and cubed
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cups kale chopped
Instructions
- First saute onion in a large pot with some oil over medium heat, until golden color.
- Once it’s golden and fragrant, add in the sausage and cook until browned, about 5 minutes.
- Add garlic, celery, carrots, and Italian seasoning and saute until the veggies are tender, about 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
- After add chicken broth, potato and bay leaf. Bring it to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Now, stir in chopped kale and continue to simmer for 5 more minutes.
- Serve each bowl of soup with parmesan cheese on top, with a slice of fresh bread, or next to a warm panini sandwich. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Q. Do YOU like this Easy Soup Recipe?
Let me know in the comments below, I would love to hear from you!
Thank YOU for YOUR Comment, Share & Recipe Review!
Quote of the Day
Happy Cooking!
One of the best, more flavorful soups I’ve made in recent memory! Used 6 vs 10 cups of broth as I wanted more of a “chili” consistency. Added spinach and used crushed garlic from a jar. I’ll take it down a notch with the red pepper flakes next time. Great flavor, and relatively guilt free!
Thank you, Jen for your awesome recipe review! I am so happy you like this Kale Soup Recipe!
Soup is delicious! I also added some coconut cream to it!
Thank you Meria!
Really liked this simple recipe! I used homemade bone broth and added more kale and a big bunch of fresh, chopped parsley at the end. Easy, relatively quick, healthy, hearty, and delish. Thanks!
Thank you Toni! That sounds so delicious!
This recipe was great! The only thing I did different was to add 1/2 block of cream cheese to make it a little creamy. It was sooo yummy! Thank you!
Thank you Hannah, cream cheese sounds so delicious, I want to try it next time.
Thank you for the delicious recipe my neighbor who passed away three months ago regularly made sausage kale soup and shared it with us, this was my first try i am keeping your recipe as our kale is abundant.
Thank you John, for your beautiful recipe review! I am sorry to hear about your loss.
I used your recipe as a starting point for what turned out to be a very tasty soup. I’m not usually a big fan of kale… but I got quite a large amount bundled in with a multitude of other veggies I was unsure what to do with… I found your recipe and it was amazing! I did make a couple subs and additions based on what I had available… left out potatoes and opted for cauliflower rice, added scallions and broccoli, and switched to chicken sausage for a lower fat option… but the soup finished and I did not taste any of the bitter taste i had come to expect from kale… thank you for posting your recipe 😊 it was such a big help…and dinner turned out to be a hit!
Thank you Pam for sharing your amazing recipe review! Love what you added to the soup, thank you for the idea!
I made this and was very pleased with how it turned out. I didn’t measure and always added more vegies than listed. I also only used about half the amount of sausage. I served it to guests and we all enjoyed it. I’ll make this again.
Love how you added extra veggies! So happy you and your guests liked this recipe!
dope recipe. light and tastes like restaurant quality. followed the recipe pretty closely the first time except I let it simmer for about 2 hours to enhance the flavor. making it again now since fiance is coming over, but used chorizo this time to give a little extra kick. thanks!
Delicious soup!!! Fiance loved it and he doesn’t usually like soup. Very hearty. I went with sweet potato instead of regular potato which added some sweetness.
Thank you, Annie for sharing your awesome recipe review! I am so happy your fiancé loved this soup, and sweet potato instead of regular potatoes sounds so good in this soup 🙂
My whole family loves this–I make it about once a month. We’re vegetarians so we use veggie sausage. Also adding a can of fire-roasted tomatoes definitely kicks this up a notch. Top it with shaved parmesan and serve it alongside some garlic bread and it’s a hearty meal!
Thank you, Richard! I am so happy you and your whole family loved this soup recipe. Thank you for sharing your recipe review!
I made this for dinner and it was a hit! I had to tweak the recipe a bit because my husband is diabetic and didn’t want potatoes in the soup. I used mushrooms and Cannelini beans in place of the potatoes and also added some halved Brussel sprouts. It was delicious!
Thank you, Susan for an amazing recipe review! I am so happy this soup recipe was a hit for you. Love how you tweaked it, beans and Brussel sprouts sounds so delicious in a soup.