Spicy Sausage & Broccoli Rabe

A light and fresh cup of chicken wild rice soup up at Lutsen's Mogul's restaurant last week

reminded me of the great ease and digestive comfort of soup.  Find a tasty liquid base (often chicken or beef broth) then add a protein substance of choice or from recipe – whether that be noodles, beans meat, or veggies – keep it hot, serve and enjoy the surprises of combination.  The first soup from the book Soup of the Day: 365 Recipes for Every Day of the Year, starts with a suggested spicy Italian sausage, modified, in our case, to mild turkey sausages, cooked until hot and cut up in quarter inch rounds.  The base is onion and garlic with 6 cups of beef broth to a boil, then add smaller tender pieces of broccoli (rabe, a version of standard broccoli, not available) which adds a lighter texture, tomato paste for thickness and tang, then slide the sausage back in and let it all heat until you like everything that is going on in the pot.

This type of soup is a perfect recipe to start a year's worth of possible meals because it proves to the cook that you really only have to follow closely some of the basic foundations of any soup recipe and the rest can be adjusted to taste and audience.  For a family with kids, maybe skip the sausage and do mild kielbasa; instead of broccoli, place any leaf green you want, or even green beans, maybe peas…heck a carrot wouldn't hurt anybody… just something to brighten the bowl and add a perceived healthful contrast.  Hold back on a cup of the beef broth if your eaters prefer thick soup; add more and let simmer longer if you like the smell in the kitchen.  We eventually broiled sliced pieces of fresh Vienna bread and lathered brie in the middle for grilled cheese, which I then decided to cut into fours and turn into hard cheesy croutons.

Unlike the preparation of, say, a Delmonico's steak where minute by minute timing is critical, soups are "open dishes," and need little more than a liquid, substance, some spice, and a pinch of creative license.