Apple Chicken Sausage and Sweet Potato Soup

I can't believe it's almost the end of October, and the end of Soup Month.  I hope you've all enjoyed the new soups and maybe had a chance to try a few, but we still have a couple more recipes lined up to finish off the month.

For day 27 of Soup Month 2013, we combined lots of fall ingredients into a healthy, but hearty, Apple Chicken Sausage and Sweet Potato Soup.  In the process, we also discovered a few delicious new products that we will definitely be including in future recipes.

The apple chicken sausage, with one package of 4 links, comes in at just 160 calories per link and 7 grams of fat.  Pretty healthy for a "sausage" type product, and it's also gluten free.  It was also quite tasty and I'm already thinking of lots of recipes to cook with this product.

The sausage was combined with a bottle of Angry Orchard Apple Ginger Hard Cider, and this is one unique drink.  The apple ginger hard cider added a nice background flavor to the soup with a slight tartness, and an interesting hint of ginger.  If you go to their web site (here - Angry Orchard) they actually have a recipe for a turkey brine mixture using this cider.  I'm not usually much of a turkey fan, but I've got to try this recipe!

Sweet potatoes, onion and cabbage are added to complete this great fall soup.  The apple flavor is very prominent in this recipe and, since I had never tried this brand of sausage, I was a little worried that the apple would overpower the other ingredients, but I was pleasantly surprised.  Not only did the flavors blend nicely, the apple, cabbage and sweet potatoes gave this soup a bit of a German twist, but in a really healthy way.

Overall, this was a very tasty soup.  I didn't add salt of pepper to my soup, but my husband added pepper to his liking, so adjust that to your own preference.  This soup is also quick to prepare and can be on the table in about 30 minutes.  Serve with crackers or slices of hearty rye bread.  Enjoy!!

2 tsp  Olive Oil
1 small Onion, chopped
1 pkg  Al Fresco Sweet Apple Chicken Sausage, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 bottle  Angry Orchard Apple Ginger Hard Cider
1/2 large  Cabbage, cut into strips
3 large  Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cubed
6 cups  Chicken or Vegetable Broth
Kosher Salt and Ground Black Pepper, optional, to taste

In a medium soup pot, sauté onion in olive oil until softened.  Add the sausage, stirring frequently so the sausage lightly browns.  Add the cider to the pot, stir and cook for 5 minutes over medium heat.

Add the cabbage, sweet potatoes and broth to the pot, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are tender.  Serves 6.