Italian Orzo Vegetable Soup with Sausage and Spinach

Cook's notes: While you can never have too many cookie recipes the same could also be said of soup. It's the perfect course for any meal. We all have our favorites and one of mine is an Ever Ready Special Italian Orzo Vegetable Soup with Sausage and Spinach.

It's simple, flavorful and hearty. You probably have most of the ingredients on hand. It's comforting to have a simmering pot of soup on hand no matter what the weather. For easier prep cook Italian sausage ahead as well as chopping veggies. Omit the meat and the recipe makes a great vegetarian soup. Pair the soup with cornbread, your favorite sandwich, or crusty artisan bread. The recipe serves 6.
Ingredients:

• 2 -1/2 cups cooked Italian sausage, crumbled
• 1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup each of diced, sweet onions, celery, carrots, mini sweet red and yellow peppers
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 8- 10 cups chicken broth, low sodium
• 1 can (14 oz. ) fire-roasted diced tomatoes
• 1-1/4 cups dried orzo or whole wheat orzo pasta or another small pasta
• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning or 1/4 teaspoon each thyme, oregano. rosemary, basil
• 1 teaspoon parsley flakes
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 4 cups fresh spinach leaves, stems removed (1/2 of a 5 oz. bag)
• Sea Salt and pepper to taste
• Grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Heat olive oil in a large soup or stock pot.
• Add in onions, celery, carrots, peppers and garlic.
• Saute for 2 minutes, stirring often. Cover and reduce to low heat. Sweat vegetables for 5-8 minutes. Stir occasionally.
• Uncover and add broth, canned tomatoes, orzo, seasonings, and cooked sausage. Bring soup to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir in spinach leaves and cook until spinach is wilted about 2-3 minutes.
• Serve soup warm with grated Parmesan cheese.
• To reheat use more chicken broth if the orzo has absorbed a lot of liquid.

POSSIBLE VARIATIONS:
This Italian Sausage, Orzo and Spinach Soup recipe is incredibly flexible with regards to variations. So feel free to experiment with whatever ingredient swaps or additions sound good. For example, feel free to…Make it spicy: I highly recommend using good-quality spicy Italian sausage, if you would like your soup to have some heat. Or you can also double the amount of crushed red pepper flakes used here. (Or if you prefer a milder soup, you can halve or omit the amount of crushed red pepper flakes entirely.) Other ideas include:

• Add extra veggies: Feel free to toss in any other mild soup-friendly veggies that you have on hand, such as bell peppers, zucchini, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus or peas.
• Add beans: Feel free to add in a can of your favorite beans (rinsed and drained) for some extra protein.
• Use a different protein: Shredded or diced chicken, ground beef, chicken sausage, or vegan sausage.
• Use a different pasta shape: Really any kind of pasta will work here, but I would recommend some sort of smaller bite-sized pasta shape if you do not have orzo.
• Use different greens: Kale or collard greens would also be delicious in place of the baby spinach.
• Use quinoa: If you would like to lighten up the soup a bit and make it gluten-free, you can also substitute quinoa (rinsed and drained) for the orzo.