Beating the Rainy Day Blues

During the first week of summer, we’ve had more rainy days than sunny. Honestly, it’s put a little damper on my workout and healthy eating goals. Well, that and not being able to find my Fitbit charger this morning. However, there’s nothing like a nourishing soup to beat the rainy day blues. Italian Gnocchi Soup is one of my family’s favorite recipes and I hope it becomes one for your family too.

Italian Gnocchi Soup

Yield: 4-5 servings        Cook time: 20 min

Soup Ingredients:
1 package of Italian Gnocchi (16 oz)
14.5 oz can of San Marzano tomatoes*
4 1/2 cups vegetable broth (homemade or low-sodium organic)
4 links of vegetarian grain sausage**
Black pepper
1 cup fresh baby spinach

Topping:
Basil pesto***

Directions:
1. Remove the grain sausage from its casing. Slice or crumble the sausage and brown it in a large pot with a little EVOO. (This takes about 6 minutes for the Field Roast Italian sausage).
2. Next, crush the tomatoes and add them to the pot. Stir in the vegetable broth and add the gnocchi. Season the soup with a dash of pepper and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes.
3. Turn off the burner and stir in the baby spinach until it’s wilted.
4. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with a teaspoon of basil pesto.

Tips:

*Today I tried fire roasted San Marzano tomatoes. It made the soup a little spicier and smokier than the traditional one. I like either version. Children might prefer plain San Marzano tomatoes.

** Field Roast makes an excellent Italian grain sausage. One serving has 1g of saturated fat, 0g of cholesterol, and 25g of protein. It does have a quarter of your daily sodium. For a lighter soup, I sometimes replace the sausage with red kidney beans and fresh green beans.

***I’ll update the post with a quick and easy pesto recipe once my basil plant has grown.