Lauren Cobello » Meal Planning » Slow Cooker Recipes » Slow Cooker Sausage and Kale Soup
In the cold months of the year, this Sausage Kale Soup could easily become your best friend. It warms and fills you up just right. I also love this meal because it is designed for the slow cooker, and can also be easily frozen and cooked for a later day!
A previous version of myself would have insisted that you pre-cook the sausage with the onions before you place it in the slow cooker. But this older, wiser and lazier version of myself will tell you this:
“Just throw it in, turn it on and go take a nap!“
Here’s what you need – a bunch of cheap ingredients. I use turkey sausage for this because it is very lean, and you won’t end up with that layer of grease on top of the soup. Also – note that I only ended up using 2 potatoes, not 3 as pictured.
I usually start with potatoes and onions before the other ingredients, but it doesn’t matter too much since everything will be covered in liquid.
Top with the kale and sausage and you’re almost there!
Once all the dry ingredients are in there, add 4 cups of whole milk and 2 cups of water.
Cook on high for 4-6 hours and enjoy with some crusty bread. And I know you will make it again!
Have you grabbed my freezer meal plans, yet? I might be biased but I think they are pretty amazing! They have saved our dinner hour for years now. Check them out!
COMMENTS
This isn’t turkey Italian sausage, is it? I don’t like Italian sausage. Am wondering if smoked sausage (pre-sauteed to remove extra grease) would work.
You can use any kind of sausage you want 🙂
[…] Slow Cooker Sausage and Kale Soup […]
If I want to make this ahead and freeze it, would I put all in a freezer bag including milk or wait until I throw in the crock pot to to add the milk?
I would wait to add the milk until it goes in the crockpot.
I’m always confused by bulk sausage – is this like bulk breakfast sausage?
It is the sausage that is not in links, not breakfast sausage. It comes in a package as regular sausage.
What would be a good substitute for kale? I like it, but I have a VERY picky family . I was thinking cabbage, but I’m not even sure they’d eat that. Mixed vegetables? I would like to keep some kind of vegetable in it!
Spinach might work.
This is absolutely delicious – my only question is about the milk. Mine curdled a bit (flavor is still amazing so I’m not sad!) but I’m wondering how to mitigate that in the future. Usually i put milk into a crock pot on the last few hours, but since this calls for majority milk I just threw it all in. Tips?
Why do you have turkey sausage links listed in the grocery list but this recipe says ground turkey? Am I missing something? Are they for another recipe?
If your family doesn’t love kale or spinach, try using kitchen shears to ‘chop’ it. Hold a big handful, and snip at it to make little strips or flakes. It goes really fast, makes the cooked greens easier to eat, and doesn’t waste a cutting board.