Earlier today, we were talking with the kids about Groundhog Day – what it means, what happens on Groundhog Day, how long it’s been a tradition in the US. My husband decided that we needed to start a new family tradition and find a new recipe to prepare and eat every Groundhog Day. After a little bit of brainstorming, our 14-year-old son suggested a recipe with ground HOG (ie, ground pork), which we ALL thought was perfect.
My husband put on his thinking cap…and, meanwhile I headed upstairs for a much-needed Sunday afternoon nap. When I woke up, the house smelled heavenly and dinner was ready to eat.
Pictures first, of course!
The only thing we may change for next time we make this soup is to use crushed tomatoes instead of diced, since the kids said that there were too many big chunks of tomato. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for everyone, though. My husband and I loved all of the tomatoes!
Since I am currently doing Weight Watchers, I like to plug everything in to the Weight Watchers recipe builder to calculate the PointsPlus value…and honestly, with the sausage in this soup I was expecting a pretty high PointsPlus value. I was shocked to find that this soup is a LOW 4 PointsPlus per serving (the recipe yields about 10 good-sized bowls of soup!). I even added the tortilla chips to the calculation….so the final Points+ is 4, garnishes and all! To say that I was thrilled with that number is an understatement!
The trick with the healthy factor is this soup is that it is 95% good stuff – veggies and black beans and broth. Since I used 12 ounces of sausage (the sausage I used was 2 PointsPlus per ounce) there’s a very small amount of sausage per serving…but the flavor is BIG!
Ready for the recipe?
Italian Sausage and Tomato Soup {Groundhog Day Recipe}
- 12 ounces ground mild Italian sausage
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 3 (14.5 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes, with liquid
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 can black beans, drained
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Sweet peppers, sliced thin (optional)
- Tortilla chips, crushed (optional)
- Brown Italian sausage and onion over medium-high heat in a large pot, stirring to break up sausage.
- Add remaining ingredients except tortilla chips and sweet peppers.
- Cover and simmer for at least 20 minutes.
- Serve with sweet pepper strips and crushed tortilla chips, if desired.
PS – as you might have seen from my pictures above, I used Vegetable and Flaxseed chips from Trader Joe’s. If you happen to have a Trader Joe’s nearby, or if you can find something similar, I highly recommend a veggie and flaxseed chip. If you can’t find them, then regular tortilla chips are yummy, too!
Be sure to check out my other Weight Watchers Recipes!
Note: I am currently a paid ambassador for Weight Watchers, but this recipe post is not sponsored or endorsed by Weight Watchers in any way. I am just excited to share the fun and fresh new recipes I’m finding and eating while I am losing weight!
If you like this recipe, you are going to love these recipes, too:
Click on one of the Weight Watchers-Friendly below to see the recipe:
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Looks good. Thank you for coming to the Inspire Me Monday Linky Party.
Janice
This soup sounds fantastic! If you had a spare moment, I would be delighted if you’d drop this (and anything else you’d like to share) by at the #PureBlogLove anything goes link party! You can find me here: http://picnicnz.blogspot.co.nz/
This looks very yummy and perfect for this cold weather! I also love that it is Weight Watcher friendly!