The leaves are almost done changing color. It is a sight to behold in New England. But it has been unusually warm, in fact we just had a sunny 75 degree day! However, today it dipped below 50 which was reason enough for me to make my first soup of the fall season! I hadn’t really planned on it but realized I had mushrooms, sausage, heavy cream and kale. So I just went for it. And wowzers, this soup turned out even better than expected. Love it when that happens!
One of the things that makes this soup sooooooo flavorful is the roasted garlic. Now, I went a little cray cray and ended up using the entire bulb of roasted garlic. Roasted garlic is like gold to me and just couldn’t help myself! So if you can’t take that insane amount of garlic, no worries, use just a few of the beautiful roasted cloves and the soup will be wonderful.
Garlicky Creamy Sausagey Kaley Mushroomy Soupie
Ingredients
- 1 bulb garlic
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb sweet italian sausage
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 cup mushrooms sliced
- 2 cups kale chopped
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp salt and pepper
- pinch red chili flake optional
- 2 cups chicken stock
- parm cheese grated
Instructions
For the Garlic
- Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400 degrees.Take whole garlic bulb and slice off the top third of the bulb. Use paring knife to gently create a little space between each clove. Drizzle about a tbsp of olive oil over the top including the top part you cut off. Return sliced part to the top and wrap tightly with two sheets of tin foil. Place on baking sheet and roast in oven for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and allow it to cool enough to handle.
For the Soup
- In a dutch oven or soup pot, add 2 tbsp of olive oil and heat over medium high. Add sausage and cook, breaking it up as it cooks for about 5-8 minutes or until golden brown and fully cooked. Remove from pot and set aside. Do not wipe out pot. Lower heat to medium and add butter. Once it melts and is bubbly, add mushrooms. Sauté until mushrooms are soft, stirring often and most of the water released is reduced. Add red chili flake (optional) and kale and sauté for another few minutes until wilted. Add as much of the roasted garlic as you like. Because it is roasted, it is sweet which means you can add more than you normally would. But if you are feeling cautious, start with a few cloves and you can always throw in more later. Add cream and chicken stock and cook 5 minutes. Add sausage back into pot including any resting juices. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, then turn down to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Give it a taste test and add salt and pepper to taste I like a lot of pepper in this soup, I feel like it just brings it together beautifully. And at this stage you can decide if you have enough garlic and add in more if you wish. Now just ladle this up and finish with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.