Sweet Potato Minestrone with Turkey Sausage

Ingredients

1/2 pound smoked turkey sausage, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced carrot
3/4 cup thinly sliced celery
3 cups water
2 cups diced peeled sweet potato
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 (14.5 ounce) cans no-salt-added whole tomatoes, undrained and coarsely chopped
1 (15 ounce) can Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
8 cups coarsely chopped spinach (2 large bunches)

Directions

Combine first 4 ingredients in a Dutch oven over medium-high beat; sauté 7 minutes or until sausage is browned.
Add water and next 6 ingredients (water through beans). Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Stir in spinach; cook an additional 2 minutes.

Yield: 7 servings (serving size: 1.5 cups).

My Experience

This is the best combination of taste and nutrition of our favorite dishes. It's relatively painless to make (although plan to spend 45 minutes chopping the vegetables). My wife doesn't like beans, so we've just left them out.

Avoid substituting regular (pork) sausage for the turkey sausage. The turkey sausage tends to retain its flavor better for the subsequent days' servings.

Nutritional Information

Note: Besides the nutrients listed below, each serving provides 16,973 IUs vitamin A and 48mg vitamin C.
CALORIES 221 (30% from fat); FAT 7.3g (sat 2.4g, mono 2.7g, poly 2.1g); PROTEIN 12.1g; CARBS 29.3g; FIBER 6.3g; CHOL 0mg; IRON 4.2mg; SODIUM 525mg; CALC 189mg.

Source

Cooking Light magazine, September 1996, page 90

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last updated: May 18, 1998