Sausage and Barley Soup

This soup reminds me of an altered version of Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana (the online copy cat version is great by the way). For that reason I would sub the spinach for Kale.

Cooks Beware: Pay careful attention to the ingredients in sausage. You will want to make sure that you are not buying a product with nitrites, nitrates, high sodium, or monosodium glutamate (MSG). I have to shop for my sausage at a different grocer to be sure to eliminate these ingredients but it's well worth it. You might want to make buying sausage like this a rarity and only enjoy this soup on occassions. Ok, on with the recipe...

Ingredients


Cooking spray
6 ounces turkey breakfast sausage
2 1/2 cups frozen bell pepper stir-fry (such as Birds Eye)
2 cups water
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can Italian-style stewed tomatoes, undrained and chopped
1/4 cup uncooked quick-cooking barley
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh baby spinach (Kale instead? I love this stuff)

Preparation

1. Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add sausage; cook 3 minutes or until browned. Remove from heat.

2. While sausage cooks, place stir-fry and 2 cups water in a blender; process until smooth. Add stir-fry puree, tomatoes, and barley to sausage in pan. Bring mixture to a boil over high heat; cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in spinach; cook 1 minute or until spinach wilts.

Nutritional Information

Calories:145 (24% from fat)
Fat:4g (sat 1.5g,mono 1.2g,poly 0.5g)
Protein:9.9g
Carbohydrate:17.9g
Fiber:2.6g
Cholesterol:33mg
Iron:1.6mg
Sodium:493mg
Calcium:53mg

Source: Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast, Oxmoor House, APRIL 2009
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1895927