RECIPE | Yummy Sausage & Potato Soup

I will admit, the weather here in North Carolina has been wonky at best. One day it’s freezing. The next day it’s like beach weather. But last week it hit some of the coldest temperatures on record during that “arctic blast.” And when it is FREEZING outside, all I want to eat for dinner is a cup of warm, hearty soup and a grilled cheese sandwich.

I didn’t want to make tomato soup because I felt like that was too cliche. So, I got to thinking. I got to looking through my cookbooks. I got to brainstorming. I knew I had some leftover potatoes and some leftover sausage in the fridge that needed to be used up.

I found a similar recipe in one of my recipe books and decided to give it a try. And this is what came out – it. was. delicious!

RECIPE | Yummy Sausage & Potato Soup

INGREDIENTS:

• 1lb ground sausage (I used hot sausage)
• 3 medium russet potatoes (I used like 4-5 really small potatoes because it was what I had left)
• 1/4 cup of butter
• 1/4 cup of flour
• 3 cups of low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 tsp of Thyme (I didn’t measure it, I just sort of eyeballed it)
• Salt and pepper (to taste)
• 3 cups of milk (I used skim)
• 3/4 cup of Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

First, wash (and by wash, I mean scrub) your potatoes and remove the skins. Then cut into small cubes. Then, place the cubed, skinned potatoes in water, bring to a boil, and cook. I did this step first and then had the potatoes cooking / boiling while I did everything else.

Then, cook / brown your sausage.

Next, in a large pot melt the butter and stir in the flour – continue stirring until mixed together. After that, stir in the chicken broth and bring the whole thing to a boil. You want to keep stirring until the whole thing is becoming thick and smooth.

Once the broth / flour / butter combo is nice and thick and smooth, add in the milk, thyme, salt and pepper, parm cheese, sausage, and potatoes. It doesn’t matter if the potatoes aren’t fully cooked yet – they will finish cooking in the soup. Bring this whole combination to a boil and then let it simmer for about 15-30 minutes or until the potatoes are nice and tender.

Top with some shredded cheese (optional) and serve with a side of a nice grilled cheese sandwich. My favorite is pepperjack cheese on sourdough! YUM YUM YUM!!

Perfect cold weather or rainy day food.

What about you? What’s your favorite cold weather recipe?