Turkey Sausage and Vegetable Soup

I love hearty vegetable soups. As the weather gets colder, my craving for soup increases. Usually I cook soups in the crockpot so that the flavors can mix for hours, but my crockpot was in need of a good scrubbing and I didn't feel like cleaning it at the moment so I decided to cook this soup on the stove. Hope you all enjoy it.

Turkey Sausage and Vegetable Soup
Ingredients

• 2.4 oz onion, diced
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 potatoes, diced
• 6.5 oz celery, sliced
• 8.4 oz butternut squash, cubed
• 6 cups kale, coarsely chopped
• 4 cups chicken broth
•  1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Italian sausage links with the meat removed from the packaging or bulk sausage meat equaling that amount
• 6 leaves of fresh basil, finely chopped

Procedure

1. In a large pot, pour in the extra virgin olive oil and cook the onion and garlic in it on medium to low heat.
2. Add the carrots, potatoes, squash and celery to the pot when the onions begin to look translucent. Stir frequently to prevent burning.
3. Add the sausage to the pot and cook until the sausage is no longer pink.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot, turn the heat to high. Let the pot reach a boil and then turn the heat down to low heat and let the pot simmer for 30 minutes to an hour.