Lighter Lasagna Soup

It has been so cold here lately, I think I have saved at least a dozen soup recipes.  I love soup this time of year.  I saw a couple of recipes for lasagna soup and it just sounded so good to me.  Since I’ve been pregnant, I’ve been craving foods with tomatoes or tomato sauce, so this was right up my alley.

For this soup, I actually combined two different recipes – one I saw on Pinterest, originally from the cookbook 300 Soups, and the other, a lighter version, from Bobby Deen.  I took elements I liked from both and melded them into a recipe that seemed logical to me.  I really loved this soup and thought it was absolutely delicious. It had amazing, satisfying flavors, and it was just good ol’ soul warming food.  Although I loved this soup and it has all of the same ingredients as lasagna, I can’t really say that I thought it tasted “like lasagna.”  But whatever, I’d definitely make it again.  And it makes a ton, so it would be great for entertaining!

I made the noodles separate because I knew there would be soup leftover and I didn’t want the noodles to soak up all of the juice.  When I served the soup, I put a few noodles in the bottom of the bowl then poured the soup on top.  You could of course, just cook the noodles in the soup at the end for 8-10 minutes until they are tender and save yourself a step.  But be forewarned, the noodles will suck up a lot of the juice in your leftover soup.

As always, you can customize this by cutting the peppers into the size chunks you like (we like ours chunky) and adding more or less red pepper flake for spice.  I did make the cheesy topping, and I’d highly recommend it – if you like cheese.  You stir it into the soup and it makes it a little creamy and a lot delicious.  Of course, if you’re not into that sort of thing, feel free to forgo it.  I didn’t make any garlic bread to go with our soup, but instead we went with our standby multigrain (really grainy) bread.  So delicious!

Lighter Lasagna Soup

Ingredients:

• 1-1.25 lbs Italian turkey sausage, casings removed if using links
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced or grated
• 2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 28 oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes (or 2 14 oz. cans)
• 8 oz. can tomato sauce
• 1 32 oz. container of chicken stock
• 8-10 broken whole wheat lasagna noodles
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
• reduced fat shredded mozzarella cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

For the optional cheesy topping:

• 8 oz. low fat/skim ricotta cheese
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add sausage, onion, and peppers, season with salt and pepper, and cook until sausage is browned and vegetables become a bit tender, 8-10 minutes.  Add garlic and cook for a minute more.  Add oregano and red pepper flakes.  Add tomato paste, stir well, and cook for a minute or two to wake up the flavor in the paste.  Stir in stock, tomatoes, and tomato sauce.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer for 30 minutes.  Adjust salt and pepper if needed.  Right before serving, stir in chopped fresh basil.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil and cook the broken lasagna noodles according to package directions. (Alternately, cook broken noodles directly in soup for the last 10 minutes until tender.)

If making the cheesy topping, stir together the ricotta, parmesan, salt and pepper.  Set aside.

Serve with a few noodles in the bottom of the bowl, topped with soup.  Top everything with shredded mozzarella and a spoonful of the cheesy topping if you made it.

Enjoy!