I’m the first to admit while growing up I was never a fan of soup for dinner. What can I say? I just didn’t enjoy eating my meals with a spoon! But as time passed I realized a) how simple soups can be to make b) how practical they are c) how economical they are and d-z) just how delicious they can be. And at this age, all of those things are extremely important to me when it comes to cooking! I was looking for a nice hearty soup to make for dinner the other night and found a Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup on Smitten Kitchen. The ultimate deciding factor was that it called for linguica, a Portuguese sausage. I absolutely loooooove linguica. I actually used to request it for my birthday dinner growing up (with lots of rice and lima beans!), hehe. Once the veggies were all cut up preparing the rest of the soup was smooth sailing and pretty quick!
Here’s what you need, serves 8
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 3 10-11 ounce fully cooked smoked Portuguese linguica sausage (or chorizo) cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced (Garlic Zoom tiiiime!)
• 2 pounds sweet potatoes (about 2 large), peeled quartered lengthwise, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• 1 pound white-skinned potatoes, peeled, halved lengthwise, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• 6 cups low-salt chicken broth
• 1 9-ounce bag fresh spinach
Here’s what you do:
• Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the linguica and cook until brown, frequently stirring for about 8 minutes. Transfer the linguica to a paper towel lined plate to drain. I kept the oil from the linguica in the pot… because, to be quite frank, it’s delicious and why would I want to discard perfectly good linguica oils?!
• Add onions and garlic and cook until transparent, for about 5 minutes.
• Add all of the potatoes and cook until they show signs of softening, stirring frequently, about 12 minutes.
• Add the broth and bring to a boil, making sure to scrape up any brown bits. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and let simmer until the potatoes are soft, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes.
• Using a potato masher, mash some of the potatoes in the pot.
• Add the browned linguica to soup.
• Stir in spinach and simmer just until wilted, about 5 minutes. Stir in remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and season with salt and pepper.
I actually agreed with the Smitten Kitchen that the idea of sausage soup sounded a bit odd at first, but once I continued reading the rest of the ingredients it did sound pretty tasty. The sweet potatoes provided the perfect touch of… sweetness and the linguica added a hint of smokey. Overall, it was such a satisfying and soul-warming soup that I’m excited to make again! As long as Boston keeps serving up this cold, I’ll keep making delicious soups 
Stay warm and Happy Friday!
[Chels]
I have the same recipe bookmarked and was wondering if it’d be as delicious as it sounds. I’ll have to try it out!
That looks like such a hearty meal. Yum!
I was never a fan of soup for dinner either… until I grew up! haha
Blogging kind of opens your eyes and helps you get out of your comfort zone, I think.
It was nice seeing you and Sues again yesterday.
Oh – this reminds me of my mom’s portuguese caldo verde soup. I looooove linguica, it reminds me of home. I’m going to have to try this soup – its sounds great – and I like the use of spinach and sweet potatoes! Very nutritious!
Another great winter soup I came across last year is African Peanut Soup. It’s very different, but very good. It’s a combination of chunky peanut butter, brown rice, canned tomatoes, chicken is optional and some other typical soup ingredients. Google it, it’s super good.
I never in a million years would’ve put this combination together in my mind, so thanks for the great idea! Here’s an African Peanut Soup recipe from a couple weeks ago over at An Hour in the Kitchen – http://anhourinthekitchen.com/2010/01/african-peanut-stew/ – and if you’re looking for all-natural peanut butter, I can recommend a place to find that too!
I really seriously do not recommend chorizo for this in any way. It’s too loose and greasy for this dish. It’s a sausage that’s meant to break up.. Linguica or another spiced sausage is the way to go. If you do go with chorizo (as I did- here in Texas chorizo is much much easier to find than linguica), I recommend serving in a bread bowl.