Winter Recipe Idea: Portuguese Sausage-Kale Soup in the Crockpot

When I get home from work, I usually don't feel much like cooking. This soup can sit on low in your slow cooker for eight hours and turns out to be a hardy and delicious soup.

Ingredients

• 8-10 small to medium red potatoes (peeled and chopped into bite-size chunks)
• One package of sweet Italian sausage - turkey or pork (sliced into bite-size chunks)
• One bunch of kale (chopped into bit size chunks -- these will also cook down)
• One and a half cup carrots (chopped into large chunks)
• One cup chopped mushrooms
• One 32-oz box chicken broth
• Three tablespoons butter
• Three tablespoons flour
• Three cups milk

Directions

1. Brown sausage in a skillet
2. In a slow cooker, layer potatoes then cooked sausage, then carrots then kale.
3. Pour chicken stock over ingredients.
4. Cook on LOW for 8 hours, or HIGH 4 hours.
   

   After cook time...

5. Saute mushrooms - place cooked mushrooms into soup.
6. Melt butter in a pan over low heat, add flour to melted butter one tablespoon at a time. Mix into a paste.
7. Slowly add milk - stirring constantly. Stir until all lumps are gone and consistency is thick but liquid.
8. Add milk mixture to crockpot.
9. Serve