My cousin, Jacquie, has an awesome recipe for Shortcut Sausage Spinach Tomato Soup. Jacquie describes her soup recipe as the perfect “weeknight soup” because you can quickly make it in a pot on your stovetop. I have a thing for my slow cooker though, so I decided to modify Jacquie’s recipe to cook in my slow cooker.
It’s an absolutely delicious soup recipe that your whole family will love. You’ll love it because it’s easy to make and can even be frozen ahead of time for a busy weeknight. Enjoy!
Slow Cooker Sausage Spinach Tomato Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground sweet or spicy Italian sausage (We prefer spicy. Note: If you can only find sausage links, remove the casing before cooking.)
- 24 oz jar of pasta sauce
- 1 can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 box of frozen chopped spinach
- 1/2 pound of carrots (about 4 large carrots), peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 1 small yellow onion, diced (about one cup)
- 4 cups of chicken broth
- 1 cup uncooked pasta (I like to use elbow macaroni or ditalini)
Directions
- Brown the sausage in a pan.
- Add the sausage and the rest of ingredients (except the pasta) to your slow cooker and cook on the “low” setting for 6-8 hours.
- Add pasta the last 15 minutes of cooking and turn the heat to “high.”
To Freeze and Cook Later
Add all ingredients to a gallon-sized plastic freezer bag (except chicken broth and pasta). When ready to eat, thaw overnight in refrigerator and dump into your slow cooker with chicken broth. Cook on “low” setting for 6-8 hours or until sausage is cooked through. Add pasta and turn heat to “high.”
Serve with garlic bread.
Let’s show Jacquie some love for letting me share her soup as a slow cooker recipe. You can find more of her awesome recipes, DIYs, and gorgeous photos on her website The Sweeter Side of Mommyhood. You can also find her on:
Question: What’s your favorite kind of soup?
How many servings does this make? Also, if I want to sub rice, would I add it in the end or could I put it in with the other ingredients in the slow cooker?
Thanks!
I think six. I’m not used to cooking rice in my crockpot, so I would pre-cook it and add it at the end. we also omit the pasta sometimes. Still delicious!
how many cups of cooked pasta is equal to one pound… I can’t seem to find any info on this.
Hmmm, well I know there are about 4 cups of *uncooked* pasta in a one pound box. According to this site, that would yield about 10 cups cooked. I’ve heard some people say that a pound is too much to add to this recipe though, so I would probably add one cup *uncooked* or 2.5 cups cooked. Hope that helps.
Update: I now think one cup is the perfect amount.
The directions say to brown the sausage in a pan, but I know you usually put your meat into the freezer without cooking it first. Did you choose to cook the sausage before freezing?
I used to cook my ground meat before adding to the slow cooker/freezer because that’s what everyone else was doing. Then I realized it was unnecessary and only added more prep time, so I stopped.
What size slow cooker did you use? I want to double this recipe but i want it to fit in one cooker. I have a 6 quart slow cooker.
I’ve cooked it in my 6-qt before and it fills at least 2/3 of the crock.
It sounds very good, but I’m kind of “if-y” on a few of the ingredients. I’m weird about carrots in anything tomato-y (I just don’t care for that combination). Also, I don’t digest beans well. I can easily omit the pasta, or sub it for some GF pasta, so that’s not a problem, but do you have any suggestions to sub the carrots and/or the beans?
Thank you!
You could use other vegetables, like zucchini and/or green beans.
Than it will be completely something else…. Lol
How much is a “box” of frozen chopped spinach? I’m used to boxes of fresh or bags of frozen. Thanks!
I think it’s 10oz. If you want to substitute fresh, I’d use half of a 5oz bag.