Chicken Sausage and Pinto Bean Soup

Yes, we still need warm & hearty soups here in the pacific northwest!! Brrrrrrr, it has been wet-cold for the last week with pretty much non-stop rain. This is good soup to make when you want to surprise your friends with a dinner. The recipe makes a lot of soup and it is a lot of fun to share it . . .


The Vegetables:
2/3 medium sized butternut squash: pealed, seeded and chopped small
1 onion, chopped
6 carrots, chopped
7 stalks celery, chopped
2 cups of chard or spinach chopped into 1" squares or smaller

The Other Stuff:
sprig of: rosemary, thyme, parsley and 2 bay leaves
4 TBS soy sauce or tamari

The Protein:
3 cups dry pinto beans soaked 6-8 hours
4 chicken sausages (or more if you like)
1-2 whole chickens, leftover from a dinner (ie: most of the meat is gone and bones remain) to make soup stock. You can freeze these used bones and take them out for these occasions.

• Cook the chicken bones in a 6-quart pan with 5 quarts of water for 3-4+/- hours. The goal is flavor and nutrient rich soup stock. I put the soup pan on the stove top on a low simmer early in the day and just let it cook while I go about my day. Then around 4-5pm I start the rest of the soup.

• Add the soaked pinto beans and "other stuff" (rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, parsley) and cook for another hour.

• Make sure the pinto beans are soft, but still well-formed before adding the vegetables. Add the chopped vegetables, except for the onion and the chard/spinach.

• Cook the onion and sausages in a separate pan with some olive oil until the sausage is hard enough to cut into rounds. Make sure the pinto beans and vegetables are all soft (done) before you add the sausage to the soup. Cut sausage into rounds and add it and the onion to the soup.
  
• Turn off the heat and add tamari, and 10-15 minutes before serving add 2 cups of chard or spinach and sprinkle parsley over the top. The heat from the soup will cook/soften the greens, but they will also retain their brilliant color as long as they are not over-cooked.
  

Serve with baked polenta, or all by itself! This is a complete meal in one bowl.