What a great way to kick off the New Year than with another awesome installment of our monthly Lazy Susan blog circle! Be sure to follow the link at the bottom of this post for LOTS more easy and simple recipes from some of my favorite bloggers.

This month’s Lazy Susan challenge? Healthy and delicious recipes, using 7 ingredients or less.  I’ll up the ante by sharing my recipe for Sausage, Spinach and Tortellini Soup, which is not only yummy, healthy and easy, but also uses only ONE pot.  Cheers to fewer dishes in 2012! Holla!

Ingredients

• 1 lb turkey Italian sausage (I prefer hot, but sweet would be ok too)
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 40 oz low sodium chicken broth
• 5 oz fresh spinach
•  1 1/2 cups tomatoes, chopped
• 9 oz store-bought cheese tortellini
• 2 tb unsalted butter (optional)

Directions

1. In a large dutch oven (or stock pot), brown sausage over medium heat until fully cooked (approximately 10-12 minutes.)  Remove sausage, let cool and slice in to bite-size pieces, set aside.
2. Add minced garlic to pot and saute for 3 minutes.  Add wine and broth, scraping brown bits from bottom of the dutch oven. Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 3 minutes. Add tortellini and boil for another 5 minutes.  Add spinach, tomatoes and sausage.  Cook for 5 minutes, remove from heat.
3. At this point, you can whisk in 2tb of butter, which adds a little extra richness to the soup.  If you are watching fat or calories, the soup is still delicious without adding butter.

For more delicious and easy recipes, visit Gretchen’s blog, where she will be sharing her recipe for Rustic Chicken Soup.