Sausage & Fennel Vegetable Soup (gluten free)

Cooking for the Children’s  Home with the ingredients from my Space Girl Organics box again.  This was actually two weeks ago, we had out of town company and I’m still catching up! In my box I had fennel, carrots, red potatoes, tomatillos, onions, kale and lots of squash and fruit.  I made this wonderful soup, Paleo Squash bread, Apple Stuffed Squash, brown rice and raw cut up fresh fruit and veggies for them.

I adore fennel and it’s great with the sausage in this soup. The flavors are deep and rich, but mild enough for children. I didn’t really know what to do with the tomatillos, but they just blended right in.  I think anything you have on hand would work just as well. That’s the fun of making soup!

You might have noticed that I don’t add a lot of spices or onion in the dinners that I cook for the kids . That’s because they don’t like them, but you can adjust the recipe with any spices that you enjoy.  Amazingly, I’ve found that the meals still turn out wonderful with just a tiny pinch of spice. Ingredients:

• 1 lb organic sausage links, chopped
• 2-3 cups leftover cooked organic chicken, shredded
• 6 organic carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 large organic fennel bulb with stalk and leaves, cleaned, diced
•  minced onion or garlic, to taste
• 4 organic red potatoes, diced
• 3 cups organic kale, chopped
• 3 organic tomatillos, chopped
• 6 cups organic or homemade chicken stock
• 3 cups filtered water, as needed
• 1 tablespoon organic olive oil for the pan
• 1 teaspoon gluten free italian herb mix or spices of choice, to taste, opt
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Instructions:

• In a large pot on medium heat, saute the sausage in olive oil until browned.  Add garlic/onion, to taste. Add carrots, fennel, potatoes, kale and tomatillos, saute for 5 minutes more, stirring often.
• Add stock to pot and stir up all the brown bits off of the bottom of the pan.  Add spices and water as needed during cooking to cover the veggies.
• Simmer soup for 20-30 minutes or until veggies are tender.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

originally posted on http://glutenfreehomebakery.blogspot.com