Iron Soup (Chicken Sausage Soup with Beans, Lentils and Kale)

I'm feeling much better today! I don't know if it was the good night sleep I got, the gym sesh I had this morning, or the soup I made last night, which was chock full of iron...but whatever it was, I am feeling almost human again!

Soup is always a good thing when you're sick, and since finding out that I'm anemic, I wanted to make a soup that was full of iron and would kick some major anemia butt. This recipe was inspired by a recipe for White Bean Soup with Kale and Chorizo I found in Cooking Light.

Chicken Sausage Soup with Beans, Lentils and Kale

Ingredients:

• 1 link cooked chicken sausage (I used Trader Joe's Spicy Italian), thinly sliced
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 cups fat-free, low sodium chicken broth
• 1 can organic pinto beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 cups cooked lentils
• 6-8 cups kale, torn into bite sized pieces and washed
• fresh ground pepper

Directions:

1. Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add sausage to pan and saute for 3-4 minutes, until a little bit browned.

2. Add onion and garlic to pot; saute 8-10 minutes, until tender and starting to brown.

3. While onions cook, heat broth in another pan on stove or in microwave until almost boiling (about 4 minutes). Add hot broth, beans and lentils to pot. Bring to a boil.

4. Partially mash beans and lentils with a potato masher or fork. Add kale to pot and stir. Continue to simmer about 20 minutes (turn heat to low as it begins boiling).

Serve with some fresh ground pepper on top! 

This soup was wonderful! I doubled the amount of kale the original recipe called for, so this soup is very thick and really warms you from the outside in. All of the flavors taste great together, and its very satisfying as a meal. An added bonus is that its so quick to make and the ingredients can be amended to what you have on hand! I'd say this recipe makes at least 5 servings of soup, so its great for a family meal or to make for yourself and have plenty of leftovers!

My workout this morning was really to ease myself back to the gym. I hadn't been yet in 2011, and today I finally felt like I could go. If you're sick, you can benefit from a moderate workout (doing anything too intense or for too long can actually make you sicker) - so I did an easy 30 minutes on the treadmill alternating between 2 minutes of walking and 2 minutes of jogging, followed by back, bis and a little bit of abs weight training. 

So whether it was the soup, the sleep, or the exercise, I am feeling much better now!