Potato Spinach Soup with Stuff

I spent a good part of the evening Friday making up three different batches of sausages (apple sage, spicy pinto bean, and pepperoni) and, by the time I'd finished that, I didn't want to make dinner. But, I did. Somehow despite my apathy, I ended up elbow deep in the midst of a culinary experiment. It started out simple enough--as these things are wont to do--and ended with a potato spinach soup topped with white beans, zucchini, and apple sage sausage. It was tasty, if a little schizophrenic, but I think it could be fabulous with a few tweaks.

But, as I said it started out simple enough. I sauteed an onion and three cloves of garlic and then threw in 3 cubed Yukon gold potatoes and covered them with water. Then I remembered the half head of cauliflower in the fridge, so I cut that up and threw it in too (with fresh ground salt and a good amount of pepper). When those were done cooking, I added 2 cups of spinach. Then, I remembered the bag of basil we have sitting in the fridge. Since our basil seedlings are just starting to sprout, we bought a huge bag at Sunflower for some other recipe. So I added a half cup of basil to the soup.

As I was slaving away over potatoes and sausages, Josh was in garage playing with a bike he dumpstered. As the greens are wilting, I am momentarily dismayed by our traditional gender roles. Then I notice how dirty the kitchen floor is under my bare feet. Someone should really sweep.

Finally, I turned off the heat altogether and pureed it with a hand blender. It was really good, but I really never find smooth soups satisfying no matter how good they are. I need chunks. My sausages finished steaming. I glanced at the leftover white beans I had from the apple sage sausages. I shrugged and went for it. I sauteed the white beans, two cut up apple sage sausages, and a zucchini in some olive oil with crushed red pepper and tossed that into the center of the bowl of soup.
I think I would make this again, but I'd definitely make the soup a mash/puree instead. I would also leave the basil out of the puree and saute it with the stuff on top and use a sausage that is just generically spicy as opposed to having such a strong specific herb flavor. So, while this was good, I think the changes would make it great.

And, for the record, Josh did the dishes--though the floor is still dirty.