The soup is a delicious combination between spicy and savory. The second it hits your mouth, the savory notes of the Italian sausage combined with cumin take over. It is slowly offset by the rich fats that simmer into the beef stock. On the finish, a slight spice will wash over the back of your tongue, leaving you with the desire to eat more.

Crock pots are extremely useful – they’re convenient, easy to cook with, and you don’t have to babysit them. It’s a true “set it and forget it” method which develops deep flavors without the hassle of continuously checking on it.

I use this Crock Pot, which is only $20 and fits 5 quarts – enough for anyone that is cooking for under 5 people.

The recipe turns out to be almost 8g net carbs per serving. If you’re interested in cutting the carbs there’s a number of ways to do it. The easiest is to leave out the onion. While it adds a great flavor, it won’t take away too much from the soup, and will cut the carb count to a more manageable 5g per serving. If you do this, I suggest adding a bit more spinach to add more volume to the soup. About 2-3 cups more should do.

Yields 4 (1.75-cup) servings of Hot Sausage & Pepper Soup

The Preparation

1 medium green bell pepper
1 medium red bell pepper
1/2 medium onion
20 ounces ground hot italian sausage
10 ounces canned tomatoes with jalapeno
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons fresh garlic, minced
2 cups beef broth
6 cups spinach

The Execution

1. Slice your peppers and onion into strips length-wise.

2. Remove the casings on your sausages and tear them up into chunks.

3. Place your sausage in a pan on medium-high heat and sear it.

4. While your sausage is cooking, add your tomatoes, spices, and peppers to the crock pot.

5. Continue to sear them until they are fully cooked all the way through.

6. Add your sausage to the crock pot and mix everything well. Keep some fat in the pan so that you can fry the onions and garlic in it.

7. Fry your onions and garlic on medium heat.

8. Once they become translucent, add them to the crock pot. This is where you should pour your beef stock in. Mix everything together well.

9. Set your crock pot to it’s high setting and cover the top with a bed of spinach.

10. Allow this to cook for 3 hours. The spinach should become wilted by this point.

11. Mix everything together and reduce the heat of the crock pot to low.

12. Let it cook on low setting for an additional 2 hours. The sauce should become a darker color, allowing a more rich flavor to run throughout.

13. There will be sausage fat that raises to the top, so stir it well before you serve. As you serve, top with extra sausage fat from the top of the crock pot liquid.

This makes a total of 4 servings of Hot Sausage & Pepper Soup. Each serving comes out to be 559 calories, 40.2g fats, 11.6g net carbs, and 33.5g protein.

NUTRITION	CALORIES	FAT	CARBS	FIBER	NET CARBS	PROTEIN
1 medium green bell pepper	23	0.2	5.4	2	3.4	1
1 medium red bell pepper	36	0.4	6.9	2.4	4.5	1.1
1/2 medium onion	19	0.1	4.4	0.8	3.6	0.6
20 ounce ground hot italian sausage	1950	154.8	24.2	0.6	23.6	108.4
10 ounce canned tomatoes with jalapeno	45	0.7	9.8	5.4	4.5	2.2
2 teaspoon chili powder	15	0.8	2.7	1.9	0.8	0.7
2 teaspoon cumin	15	0.9	1.8	0.4	1.4	0.7
1 teaspoon italian seasoning	3	0.1	0.6	0.4	0.2	0.1
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt	0	0	0	0	0	0
2 teaspoon fresh garlic	8	0	1.9	0.1	1.8	0.4
2 cup beef broth	81	2.5	0	0	0.1	13.2
6 cup spinach	41	0.5	6.8	4.3	2.4	5.4
Totals	2237	161	64.5	18.3	46.3	133.8
Per Serving (/4)	559	40.2	16.1	4.6	11.6	33.5