Also known as Italian Sausage Soup with White Beans, Kale, and Sun-dried Tomatoes, this soup received raved reviews at our dinner table this evening! Lots of “OOOOOH, Mommy! This is good!” “You need to write down this recipe!” and “Can I have more??”
I loved it because I threw all the ingredients in the Instant Pot, set it to cook, and we all went for a walk/bike ride at the neighborhood playground. When we came home, a delicious dinner was there waiting for us. This is truly my favorite thing about the Instant Pot—the ability to walk away while dinner is cooking, and not have to be there to tend to it.
There are so many ways the kids can help put together this quick soup too!
Here are some age-appropriate ways for kids to help with this easy, delicious dinner.
Toddlers:
- Help sort dried beans.
- Carry canned beans from the pantry to the kitchen counter.
- Carry onion from pantry to kitchen counter.
- Learn vocabulary—“This is an onion. This is a knife. These are white beans.”
Middle kiddos:
- Help or make chicken broth.
- Help with making beans or cook them independently.
- Brown Italian sausage.
- Chop and measure garlic, using a food chopper.
- Measure sun-dried tomatoes.
- Learn knife safety skills by watching you chop food, and talking about ways to hold the food and how to handle a knife. Or take a course in knife skills together.
Older children (pre-teens and teens):
- Make chicken broth on their own.
- Put on a pot of beans independently.
- Chop onion.
- Put together entire recipe, start to finish.
- Plan the week’s family meals.
Tuscan Sunset Soup
Equipment
- Electric Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 1 lb. Italian sausage
- 1 cup onion diced
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder or 2 tablespoons fresh minced garlic
- 1 quart 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 bunch kale chopped; can also use frozen kale (6-8 oz.)
- 6 cups cooked white beans 1 (15 oz) can of cooked beans equals about 1½ cups of cooked beans
- 4 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes diced
- salt to taste
- 1 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar
Instructions
- Instructions:
- Brown Italian sausage on [Sauté] mode in the Instant Pot. Add diced onion and sauté for a minute or two. Throw in the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Scrape off all the browned bits from the bottom of the pot, and deglaze with 1 cup of the broth. Make sure there is nothing stuck to the bottom of the pot.
- Pour remaining chicken broth into the pot. Add salt and balsamic vinegar. Float chopped kale on top of chicken broth and pour white beans on top of kale. Finally, top with sun-dried tomatoes. Avoid stirring.
- Set Instant Pot to [Pressure Cook] or [Manual] or [Soup/Broth] for 5 minutes on High Pressure. Natural release for at least 10 minutes before manually releasing the remaining pressure.Enjoy!