Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Quinoa Sausage Bean Soup

It's been cold and blustery around here with lots of freezing rain that comes in sideways.  Days like this call for soup, and crazy sports schedules and other obligations call for the crockpot.  I looked into my pantry for inspiration and saw some red quinoa and Quinoa Sausage Bean Soup was born.

For those unfamiliar, quinoa is a gf protein & fiber rich grain that is a good source of magnesium, manganese, folate, phosphorous, and riboflavin(B2).  It can be used in side dishes as a nutrient rich substitute for rice, or I like to use it in soups as a substitute for barley which is glutenous.  To make this soup, I picked through 2 cups of great northern beans,

and soaked them for several hours.

I placed the beans in my crockpot with 1 diced medium onion, 7 cups chicken broth, a lb of cut up chicken sausage, 1 cup dry quinoa, 2 bay leaves, and a dash of ground pepper.

I let that simmer away all day on low(about 6 or 7 hours.) Towards the end of the cooking time, I added some spinach leaves, kale would be great, too.

Thanks for popping in and cooking with me.  I'm linking this up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesdays.
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4 comments:

  1. sounds great!!...I'm a BIG quinoa fan...thx for sharing the recipe...come on over and visit my blog...just put a healthy no bake recipe up!!
    Mariaelena

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  2. This looks like great comfort soup for a cold blustery day. Stay warm!

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  3. Your recipes always sound SO GOOD! I wish I was as creative in the kitchen as you are. I can never come up with my own recipes, but I sure wish I could!
    The soup looks good!

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  4. All of my bean soup recipes are being met with luke warm reception lately... but nutritionally and financially, we need to eat them. Maybe the sausage will make the difference!

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