Hearty Tuscan Soup

Have you been to a Pampered Chef show lately?  I went to one in the fall.  Through the years I have accumulated many many PC products.  Several of them I don't know what I would do without (that sounds lame and cheesy but it's true).  One thing I always do when I place an order is order the "Season's Best" cookbook.  It used to be $1.00.  Now it's $2.00.  So, slightly more risky since you don't know if there's anything there that you'll make.  But I took a gamble.  There are two recipes there that I'm going to try.  This one (which is also the recipe that was at the show I went to) and then a dessert one that I'll try later.  These cookbooks are, I realize, mostly just glorified advertisements, to make you think you need this product or this spice blend to complete this recipe.  But you really don't.  So I will tell you their recipe and I'll put my modifications along with it.

Hearty Tuscan Soup
2 cans (15 oz each) pinto beans (they say reduced sodium but I just used regular)
1 tbsp olive oil
8 oz Italian turkey sausage (2-3 links), casings removed
1 onion, diced
1 med sweet potato, peeled and cubed (I prefer white...so I got one large baking potato)
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups chicken broth
1 can (14.5 oz) fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
1 tbsp Rosemary Herb Seasoning mix (my stuffing recipe from PC calls for this too and I googled substitutes way back when so I know you can sub 2 tsp dried rosemary, 1/2 tsp lemon peel, and 1/2 tsp garlic powder for 1 tbsp of this seasoning mix, so that's what I did)
½ tsp black pepper
1 pkg (5 oz) fresh baby spinach leaves, washed and dried (I do NOT like spinach so I left this out)
16 melba toast rounds (or GF bagel chips)
3 tbsp shredded Italian cheese blend (or 3 tbsp shredded mozzarella and 1 tbsp shredded parmesan, mixed...that's what I did instead of buy a whole bag of cheese for the sake of 3 tbsp) 

Drain and rinse one can of beans; set aside.  Drain and rinse second can of beans and place into food processor.  Process until almost smooth.  Set aside. (I have a manual food processor from Tupperware (gasp!) that I could have used, but I also have one you plug in, so that's the one I used.  I think you could just mash them like crazy too, but they need to be very well mashed because this is what thickens the soup)

Heat oil in dutch oven over medium heat 3-5 minutes.  Add sausage and cook 4-6 minutes or until no longer pink, breaking into crumbles.

Add onion, potato, and garlic to dutch oven; cook and stir 5-6 minutes or until onion is softened. 

Stir all beans, chicken broth, tomatoes, seasonings, and pepper into dutch oven.  Cover; bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce heat to medium and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.

Preheat broiler.  Remove dutch oven from heat; add spinach.  Cover and let stand 2-3 minutes or until spinach is wilted. Top soup with melba rounds; sprinkle with cheese. 

Place dutch oven 2-4 inches from heating element and broil 2 minutes or until croutons and cheese are lightly browned. 

Ladle soup and croutons into bowls.

At the show I couldn't taste the soup, because of gluten, so this is the first time I tried it.  This is what I used instead of melba toast (and who the heck is/was melba anyway??)

And I used way more than 16.  And I ate a few while I was was waiting for Steve to get home too.  Very very good. 

Nathan did not like this soup but everybody else really liked it.  There was enough for 3 servings for leftovers.  Of course the bagel chips kind of got soggy in the leftover portions, but that would have happened with melba toast too.  That is my only complaint about this recipe.  It was very very good and I'm sure we'll have it again.