The soup recipe is posted on WW's site as a slow cooker recipe, but after reading reviews I found that many people simply cooked it over the stove top so I thought I would give it a try. I paired the soup with a healthified restaurant favorite - a salad with warm bacon dressing.
Red Beans, Sausage, & Rice Soup
The following recipe includes changes/additions I made to the original Weight Watcher's post.
Ingredients
1 clove garlic minced
1 medium onion chopped
1 green bell pepper chopped
1 celery stalk chopped
1 can red kidney beans rinsed and drained
2 cans diced tomatoes with green chilis undrained
9 oz andouille sausage cut into bite sized pieces
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp black pepper
5 cups chicken broth
1 cup uncooked rice
Pictures Taken by Luckey
I first add only the onions, pepper, and garlic to the pot. I cook till the veggies become tender. I then add everything else (minus the rice and broth) with the cooked veggies. After everything is together, I pour in the broth.
A little note - while all this is going on, the rice is cooking on the back burner. I didn't add the rice till the very end because I didn't want it to expand too much and become mushy. Everything cooked together for about 45 minutes (minus the rice of course).
As the soup and rice cook, I start on the salad...
Greens with Warm Turkey Bacon Dressing
The following recipe includes changes/additions I made to the original Weight Watcher's post.
Ingredients
1 cup frozen peas thawed
4 cups salad greens
1/2 cup green onions chopped
6 slices turkey bacon
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
black pepper to taste
My son mixed the peas and green onions for me... Heehee - those are his little fingers in the corner. He loves helping in the kitchen, and he tends to be a bit more open to new foods if he helped cook it! So - this salad was really easy. Basically I top the greens with the peas and green onions.
I cook the turkey bacon and remove it from the pan when it is done. I chop the bacon and put it back into the pan where I then also add the water, vinegar, lemon juice, and black pepper. I let it simmer for about 2 - 3 minutes and then immediately spoon the dressing over the greens.
Like I said earlier, I didn't add the rice to the soup till we were ready to eat. We had a dinner served in multiple bowls that evening. These were tasty good. The soup actually had a ton of heat from the combination of the tomatoes with chilis and the sausage. My son actually would eat about two spoonfuls of the soup and then take a drink of water immediately! Poor guy. He seemed to like it though. The salad was pretty good. It's not like a restaurant's and I'm guessing that has something to do with the turkey bacon. But I thought it was still satisfying.
Hope everyone is getting their holiday preparations finished without too much stress!
