Chicken Sausage Meatball, White Bean and Tuscan Kale Soup

1 pound dried beans - I used White Cannelloni Beans because that's what I had in my house
8 cups of low-sodium chicken broth, that's 2 of those boxes, I use organic
1 small onion peeled and chopped up finely
2 carrots peeled and chopped up finely
2 stalks of celery, chopped up finely
4 large cloves of garlic, chopped up finely
4 thyme sprigs, fresh
1 bay leaf
1 small parmesan rind - buy a piece of parm with the rind - cut off the rind to use
1 pound of Chicken sausage or any kind you like - I used Chicken to save on calories
1 handful of kale
1/2 juice of 1 lemon
Sprinkling of Crushed Red Pepper
Sprinkling of Fresh Grated Parmesan




1) In your Slow cooker, add the first 9 ingredients. Cover it and turn cooker slower cooker on 4 hours for high or 7 hours for low.
2) Take the sausage and squeeze the meat out to form small meatballs - this was super simple to do.
3) Add them to the soup the last 30 minutes just so they cook up.
4) Add the kale the last 20 minutes
5) Squeeze the 1/2 of lemon into soup - stir up.
6) Sprinkle in the crushed red pepper - add as much as you want depending on the heat you like.
7) Remove the thyme springs, the parm rind and the bay leaf - discard those.
8) Plate up your soup in a bowl - topped off with some grated Parmesan cheese.