MONDAY MORNING RECIPE POST - HEARTY TORTELLINI SOUP

Today’s recipe was found at Art and the Kitchen hosted by Laureen King and you can find her original recipe here.  It was an excellent soup and we gave it a 10 out of 10. There are several ingredients and there is a lot of prep work, but the end result is very much worth the effort.  You may have many of the ingredients in your pantry/fridge already.

Hearty Tortellini Soup

Makes approximately 10 generous servings

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 cup chopped onions 

1 cup chopped celery 

1 cup sliced carrots

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb. extra lean ground beef

2 links mild Italian sausage, sliced

1 (28 oz.) can tomatoes, undrained and coarsely chopped 

4 cups beef stock

1 can (14 ozs.) red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

2 cups of cabbage, chopped

1 cup green beans

1 cup diced, unpeeled zucchini 

1/2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon dried basil

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon pepper 

1/2 cup dry red wine

2 cups cheese filled tortellini, fresh or frozen

2 cups fresh spinach, shredded

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a large pot heat oil over medium heat.

Add onions, celery, carrots and garlic. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes.

Stir in ground beef and sausage. Cook until beef is no longer pink. 

Stir in tomatoes, beef stock, kidney beans, cabbage, green beans, zucchini, sugar, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. 

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer covered for 30 minutes.

Stir in red wine, tortellini and spinach. 

Cook covered for 20 minutes or until pasta is tender but firm.

Taste and adjust seasonings.

Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Our pot was filled to the brim. We need a bigger soup pot! The cabbage cooks down considerably.  That helped!

Changes made: I asked Gregg to purchase turkey sausage as I remember him liking it the last time we used it and I was looking for healthier choices. He picked up these instead. They were excellent! I am thinking with all its ingredients, it helped to add that extra flavor to our soup.

The aroma wafting through the house was incredible!

We forgot to add the green beans, but no problem as we didn’t miss them. I only remembered they weren’t there when typing the ingredients here.

We already had a can of black beans in the pantry and I used them instead of the red kidney beans.

This would be very nice with a crusty roll, but we didn’t feel the need to add one. It is a very hardy soup.

I am thinking this would make a very nice vegetarian meal if you cut out the meat and used vegetable broth.

There are leftovers for several more meals, and I will put portions in the freezer if we need a change from eating this.  Gregg says we won’t do that, he enjoyed it that much. So for the next several meals we know what we will be having for lunch or dinner. It really was a great tasting soup.  My thanks to Laureen for putting it on her blog.

I think that’s about it. If you have any questions or even suggestions, please let me know in the comments.

Here is the website’s address in full in case you want to copy and paste instead of using the above link.

https://www.artandthekitchen.com/hearty-tortellini-soup/