Vegetable and Spicy Sausage Soup with Cheese Crackers

Cold weather and storms call for warm, comforting soup. After I made this dish last night, we settled in for a good thunderstorm and even some tornado warnings! Thankfully, everything turned out fine. This soup turned out more than fine. It was awesome! For a healthy soup chock full of veggies, this was fab, and Keith loved it!
Source: Ellie Krieger via Cooking Light

Vegetable and Spicy Sausage Soup with Cheese Crackers

click here for printer-friendly version

Ingredients:

4 ounces light pork sausage  (I used the whole 10 oz package)
1 1/2 cups onion finely chopped (My onion was bad on the inside, eww, so I substituted 6 chopped green onions)
1 1/4 cups zucchini finely chopped
1/2 cup carrot finely chopped
1/3 cup celery finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
3 cups fat free chicken broth, divided
2 (15.5 oz) cans cannellini beans rinsed, drained & divided
1/3 cup half-and-half
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
5 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Heat a large Dutch oven over med-high heat. Add sausage to pan and brown, stir to crumble. Remove from pan and keep warm.

Return pan to medium heat. Add chopped onion, zucchini, carrot, celery, 1/4 tsp salt and garlic; cook for five minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring frequently. Stir in 2 Tbsp tomato paste and red pepper; cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Place one cup vegetable mixture, 1/2 cup broth, and one can of rinsed, drained beans in a food processor or blender and process until smooth.

Return pureed bean mixture to pan. Add remaining 2 1/2 cups broth and second can of rinsed, drained beans; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes or until veggies are thoroughly cooked. Meanwhile, make cracker recipe below. Remove from heat. Stir in remaining 1/4 tsp salt, half-and-half, rosemary and 1/2 tsp black pepper. Cover and keep warm.

Preheat oven to 500. 

Combine cheese and 1/8 tsp black pepper in a small bowl. Drop cheese mixture by tablespoonfuls to make five mounds, four inches apart on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Pat mounds into three inch circles. Bake for three minutes or until golden and bubbling. Cool on pan for three minutes.
Ladle about one cup of soup into each of five bowls; top each serving with about 2 1/2 Tbsp sausage and one cheese cracker. 

Enjoy!  

PS - I'm linking up to Tasty Tuesdays at 33 Shades of Green. Hop over to check out other great recipes!