Tortellini Winter Soup

Found the base for this recipe on Pinterest, but I made enough revisions that I elected to repost it as my own recipe. Ryan gave this soup two enthusiastic thumbs up! 

It mixes the winter-ness of soup with a couple of veggies and cheese filled pasta - Yum!

Ingredients: 

1 package refrigerated tortellini (any variety, I used cheese filled)

1 package of mild Italian sausage (I used chicken sausage to keep the fat content low), casings removed

1 yellow onion, diced
1 cup of fresh spinach, chopped
1 can petite diced tomatoes, drained
4 cups low sodium fat free chicken broth
1 can 2% evaporated milk
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried chives
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1. Heat skillet over medium-high heat, brown the sausage and crumble into small pieces. Remove from heat. 
2. Saute onion in same pan with drippings from the sausage until soft and golden. Remove from heat. 
3. Combine chicken, onion, chicken broth, evaporated milk, parsley, oregano, chives, and red pepper flakes in a soup pot or medium sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. While the soup is simmering, add chopped spinach to a non-stick skillet over low heat, stirring frequently, remove from heat when all spinach is mildly wilted but still remains green in color. 
5. Add tortellini to soup and cook according to package (my instructions were about 7-9 minutes more). With a few minutes remaining, add in 1/2 can of drained tomatoes stirring well (add up to one can to your taste). Remove from heat, add spinach and serve immediately. Top with Parmesan cheese.

I served this soup with multigrain french bread topped with a small amount of butter and Parmesan cheese that I toasted in the oven @ 350 degrees for 5 minutes. 

So good! Trust me! Make it tonight!

Happy Cooking!