Turnip, Potato, and Sausage Soup

A hearty soup, thickened with turnips and laden with chunks of potato and sausage. You can make this with as little as 5 ingredients!

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All the best soups seem to come out of what's handy and needs to be used up in the fridge. Even if they have fancy names, like Italian Wedding Soup or Mulligatawny Soup, I'm willing to bet that the very first pot happened because the cook tossed together what was on hand. It worked, so the ingredient combination was remembered, repeated, and eventually written down.

This soup was inspired by the need to use 2 kinds of turnips--salad turnips plus a bunch complete with greens, from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share. My first version used only 5 ingredients and the family plowed through it for supper with a loaf of good bread, while my daughter polished off the leftovers at lunchtime.

I made it again, taking care to write down the ingredient amounts, and added an additional ingredient (onion) which made the soup even better I think. So no matter if you want to say "5 ingredient soup" or if it's not terribly outrageous to use 6 ingredients in your soup, if you've got turnips with greens, give this a try.

I used a combination of salad turnips and red turnips from the farm share in this soup. If you don't have both kinds, just use whatever turnips you've got on hand, and add some initially and save the rest for later in the recipe. I've made this soup with Italian sausage links and with crumbled sausage. I prefer the crumbled sausage because I liked how it distributed nicely throughout the soup, allowing the chunks of potatoes and turnips to take center stage.

Just like in my Spicy Corn and Sweet Potato Chowder, and my 6 Ingredient Spicy Mustard Greens Soup, using some sausage in a pot of soup, along with a flavorful stock, is an easy way to get a lot of flavor in a short amount of time with a short list of ingredients. I've got some stock recipes on the blog (Ham Stock from Easter leftovers, Vegetable Stock in the Slow Cooker, Thai Turkey Stock, Beef Stock) but those jars of soup base are quick ways to get loads of flavor as well. I even found one that fits my beloved canning jar storage caps (Amazon affiliate link) which was such a thrill for me I posted it on Instagram. It doesn't take much to thrill me.

For more recipes using turnips, please see my Turnip Recipes Collection. For more recipes using potatoes, please see my Potato Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me scrambling to deal with the onslaught of multiple kinds of turnips from the farm share. For more soup recipes, check out the drop down menus on the right side bar in the Soup category.

These are red turnips, with greens, white salad turnips, and potatoes--plus garlic and onion all from the farm share. I bought the sausage at the commissary.

Turnip, Potato, and Sausage Soup

Ingredients

• 8 cups prepared soup stock (I've used beef, ham, and chicken)
• 1 small bunch salad turnips plus 1 bunch turnips with greens, peeled and chopped
• ½ pound Italian sausage (or 2 to 3 links of sausage)
• 1 cup chopped onion (optional but really good)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (also optional)
• 2 large or 4 medium potatoes, diced
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. In a large pot I use my pretty purple pot (Amazon affiliate link) bring stock and salad turnips to a boil. Simmer 20 minutes, then transfer to a blender and set aside.
2. In the same pot over medium heat, sauté sausage until browned, about 5 minutes, and transfer to a plate.
3. Back in the same pot on medium heat, toss the onion, potato, and turnip cubes in the sausage fat until combined. You may need an additional tablespoon or butter or olive oil. I did not. Stir to coat, and cook for about 5 to 8 minutes until the onions soften and the potatoes and turnips get a bit of color on an edge.
4. Blend the salad turnips and stock until no lumps remain, and pour into the pot. 
5. Add in the cooked sausage and chopped turnip greens, cover, and simmer over medium low heat for 20 minutes.
6. Taste, and add salt and/or pepper if you like. I needed about a teaspoon of salt and several grinds of pepper to finish.