Italian Sausage & Zucchini Soup

In a effort to use up the zucchini & squash I have frozen from our summer harvest, I came across this soup at Kalyn's Kitchen.

This was super easy to throw together, I made mine in our slow cooker as opposed to the stove top mostly b/c we were in and out of the house all day & I didn't want to worry about the stove being on. I also made quite a bit less. The link above is the original recipe. Below is how I adjusted it to what I had in the house.



Italian Sausage and Zucchini Soup
2 links Italian Sausage, mild
olive oil
1/2 small onion, diced small
1 T finely chopped fresh garlic
2 cups sliced zucchini
3 cups beef broth
4 cups frozen diced tomatoes with juice
2 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 -3/4 cup macaroni
3 T minced fresh basil (optional, or you can use frozen basil)
fresh grated parmesan cheese for topping soup


Brown sausage in olive oil in large nonstick frying pan until well browned and firm. Remove sausage to cutting board and cut in 3/8 inch slices. Mine only browned on the outside, so I ended up browning the outside, then slicing. Put sausage back in the pan and add the onions, garlic & olive oil. Cook until sausage is no longer pink.

In your crockpot, place frozen zucchini, tomatoes & juice, beef broth & spices. Add the sausage mixture to the crockpot. Cover & leave on high for about 3-4 hours. Once the mixture is at a gentle boil, add the pasta. Cover & set to low for about 1 hour. Check periodically to ensure there is enough liquid. If you need to add more beef broth, go ahead.

Serve soup with fresh grated parmesan cheese.