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bowl of Tuscan White Bean Soup with Sausage made in the slow cooker
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5 from 1 vote

Slow Cooker Tuscan White Bean Soup with Sausage

This slow cooker Tuscan White Bean Soup with Sausage is a perfect meal for the fall and winter. It's filled with healthy vegetables and uses your favorite sausage.

Equipment

  • 6 qt. slow cooker

Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground spicy turkey sausage (or your favorite sausage)
  • 1 lb dry Great Northern beans, soaked, rinsed and boiled (SEE NOTES)
  • 3 large whole carrots, washed, peeled, and cut into 1 inch pieces.
  • 8 cups unsalted chicken stock
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
  • 1 large dried bay leaf (or 2 small ones)
  • 1 cup frozen pearl onions
  • 1 (14.5 oz) can

    fire-roasted tomatoes (SEE NOTES)
  • fresh spinach, to add to individual bowls of soup

Instructions

  • Brown turkey sausage in a skillet over med-high heat. Drain any grease once it's cooked. Add to slow cooker.
  • Add in the carrots, beans (SEE NOTES), chicken stock, onions, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and frozen pearl onions to the slow cooker.
  • Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours, depending on how your slow cooker cooks. Check at the 4 hour mark to see if the beans are soft, if not, continue to cook another hour, or until beans are soft.
  • Once the beans are cooked through, remove lid and discard the bay leaves. Add in the can of fire-roasted tomatoes and stir. (SEE NOTES) The tomatoes are added at the end of the cooking time if you are using dried beans. Dried beans cannot be cooked with acidic foods, like tomatoes or the beans will take much longer to cook to become soft.
  • Place a few fresh spinach leaves in bowls, and pour soup over. The heat from the soup will wilt the spinach perfectly.

Notes

To properly prepare dried beans for this recipe:
If you've used dried beans before then you know you need to soak the beans over night before cooking with them.  But what you may not know is something I learned while developing this recipe.  This article from Modern Day Moms explains it well. Simply put, you should soak the beans overnight, rinse them, and then boil them in fresh water for 10 minutes before adding them to the slow cooker.  That little extra step will help the cook time decrease and help to release any toxins in the beans.  The article is very informative.  
The tomatoes are added at the end of the cooking time if you are using dried beans. Dried beans cannot be cooked with acidic foods, like tomatoes or the beans will take much longer to cook to become soft.