Tasty Tuesday - Hearty Vegetable-Smoked Sausage Soup

Saturday, August 15, 2009
I was going to post this on Tuesday (hence the title), but I got distracted with ranting about people who don't know how to act. Yes, I know. Shocking.

One of the challenges I'm having with Weight Watchers is the tendency I have to prepare the same things over and over for my meals, because I know their point values and I know they're effective choices for me. This isn't that big a deal for breakfasts and lunches, but I'm trying to expand the menu for dinner. If this particular weight loss effort is to be successful (i.e., I can not only lose the weight but keep it off), then I need to ensure my food choices offer enough variety to keep me from losing my mind and eating an entire bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos in frustration.

So I've been looking for tasty recipes that offer a point value I can live with that everyone will eat.

One of my success stories is this soup recipe from Cooking Light's Slow Cooker cook book. One of the things I like about this cook book is that each recipe includes complete nutrition information, which I'll include here. Enjoy!

Hearty Vegetable-Smoked Sausage Soup

1 14 oz package low-fat smoked sausage, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices*
2 3/4 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled baking potato
1/2 (10-ounce) package angel hair slaw (about 4 cups)
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup sliced carrot
1 1/3 cups diced celery**
1 cup frozen cut green beans
1 (16-ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
4 (14-ounce) cans less-sodium beef broth
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced, or 1 tablespoon bottled minced garlic
1 bay leaf
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano, undrained

1. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausage, saute 8 minutes or until lightly browned.

2. Layer potato and next 6 ingredients in a 6-quart electric slow cooker. Top vegetable mixture with sausage. Combine beef broth and next 5 ingredients; pour over sausage mixture. Cover and cook on LOW 10 hours or until vegetables are tender. Discard bay leaf. Stir tomatoes into soup.

Yield: 10 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups).

CALORIES 160 (8% from fat); FAT 1.4g (sat 0.4g, mono 0g, poly 0.1g); PROTEIN 10.7g; CARB 26.3g; FIBER 4 g; CHOL 14mg; IRON 1.4mg; SODIUM 846mg; CALC 66mg


*I use Hillshire Farms Turkey Polska Kielbasa
**We don't like dishes with a strong celery flavor, so I use only 1/3 cup diced celery.

2 comments:

ntsc said...

Make your own sausage, it isn't that hard, especially if it can be loose.

Substitute, on a weight for weight basis, cooked rice for the fat.

I've only tried this with pork for the meat, but it is supposed to work with any meat.

I've no idea how to translate points.

Janiece said...

ntsc, that would require far more work than I'm willing to undertake.