I’m a soup person.  In the cooler months I usually make a pot of soup every week.  I’m certain my Scottish roots play into that, mostly my upbringing.  A well made soup is just hearty and hits the spot.  I lean towards chowders and creamy soups, however, my being diabetic [but not], put a lot of favorites on the Thou Shall Not Have list.  Some made it to the Thou Shall Have Sparsely list.  As far as making a big pot of comfort to be enjoyed by the bowlful though, a majority of favorites were regulated for when I’d be feeding someone other than myself. I’m still mastering the art of freezing soups.

Because of this preference, a lot of brothy options got overlooked.  In fact, I have to credit stumbling upon Heidi’s 101 Cookbooks as a $deitysend.  Like having a door opened; I got a starting point with the newly known foods I could have, but just didn’t know where to begin.  Her spin on a lentil soup pretty much won me over for trying new brothy concoctions to enjoy.  So when I saw her Chick Pea Hotpot, my mouth started telling my brain: You will make this body make that.Right now.

That’s where the base of this recipe comes from.   The original recipe was missing something for me to love it.  When I added in chopped tomatoes, cumin, cardamon, coriander, and a dash of celery seed, it became one of my favorite things to play with.

How’d It Go

Splendidly.  The nice thing about this is when your meat is cooked and your veggies are brightened, it’s time to put in the rest of the stuff and let it get happy.  I’ve done this on the stovetop and I’ve put it all in a crockpot and let it go.

Prep time: Unless you’re going the way of buying pre-sliced veggies, peeled & deveined tail-on shrimp, there is quite a bit of chopping and shelling going on.  And depending on the sausage you use, you’re overlap isn’t a lot either.  I’d go with prepping everything so you can add when the time calls for it.  While you’re waiting for the meat to render, you can make ready any storage containers for when it’s done and cooled. Also, if you’re making stock from scratch, that adds to your prep time.  Even with having to chop all the veggies and the meat, I can still put this together in a little over an hour start to finish.

What you may not have handy: Possibly all the ingredients save for a large onion and the stock.  It’s highly dependent upon what you normally have in your household.

Budget: Bell peppers, Shrimp, lean smoked sausage, seafood stock,  and if you have to get the spices, those will be the high dollar items for you.  Spice wise, if it’s not something you use regularly, try for the smaller container or buy in bulk where you can.

What I Used

I use Butterball’s Turkey Smoked sausage when I need a healthy alternative for smoked sausage [which is honestly, every time].  I’ve found it versatile and it adds that hint of smoke flavor when that’s what I’m looking for.

Spotting a Garlic & Herb Chicken Sausage in the store when I was grabbing cabbage, I picked it up to add in.  However, I found it to be too salty to meld with the other ingredients for my taste.

For stocks, I use Kitchen Basics.  When I have seafood in the mix, I like using seafood stock and their line is extremely diverse. Also, they make 1 cup quantities as well as the usual 4 cup offerings which is perfect when you know you don’t need 4 cups of stock and face not being able to use it up before it goes bad.

I spotted some baby Bok Choy when grabbing the cabbage.  I’ve used Bok Choy before, but don’t like its texture to use as a main green,  however, this smaller one had me thinking it’d be a nice addition and not overpowering if I ribboned it.  I liked it in this, so I’d use it again when I want variety.

What I’d Do Differently Next Time

Oh man, after the making the Chick Pea Hot Pot, I’ve had nothing but ideas.  In fact, I ended up doing my ‘Fearless Friday‘ this past Sunday with incorporating more seafood.  If you approach the dish like a stir fry without noodles, it opens up a lot of ideas.  This go around I added chicken, via chicken sausage.  However, if I were to do it again, I opt for chunked pieces of chicken breast that had been cooked with the smoked sausage instead.  The garlic and herbed chicken sausage I picked out just didn’t mesh.  Sounded good, but it didn’t turn out that way.

Options to consider:

Chard.  After discovering this in the lentil soup, this has just been something to consider in adding.  It’s not an overpowering green flavorwise, but it adds just the right something.  In leiu of cabbage in this hot pot, give it a try if the idea of shrimp, onions, peppers, and sausage with spinach sounds like a tasty dish. Tear it or ribbon it in pieces [be sure to devein it].

I’ve spotted numerous sausage variations available, mainly chicken sausages.  Consider the flavor when building your ingredient base.  Like a sun-dried tomato chicken sausage- go Italian inspired with peppers and onions and/or chunked summer squash and zucchini, you can reduced the amount of stock to make it less of a ‘soup’

As with all recipes…the variations are limited by your personal tastes.

Green onions and thinly sliced mushrooms.   Get inspired by the simple broths served in Japanese cuisine.  Just add these towards the end since they won’t take long to cook

Shrimp & Sausage Hot Pot   Print This Post

I started with Heidi’s Chick Pea Hot Pot, then derived the soup base that I like to use from that.

Ingredients [Soup Base]

• 4 1/2 cups seafood stock [I've made it with Chicken and Veggie stock as well]
• 1 14-ounce can of chopped tomato [fresh is always an option if you can get ripe ones]
• 1/2 tsp Cumin
• 1/2 tsp Cardamom
• 1/2 tsp Ground Coriander seed
• 1/4 tsp Garlic powder
• 1/8 tsp celery seed
• 2 pinches ground black pepper
• dash of The Woo [Worcestershire Sauce]

Ingredients [Hot Pot]

• 1 cup water [for sauteing]
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped or sliced
• a splash of olive oil [or a non fat olive oil/canola oil spray]
• a couple pinches of salt
• 3 bell peppers, chopped/sliced into large pieces [color of your choice]
• 8-10 oz sliced mushrooms
• 1 pkg Turkey Smoked Sausage, sliced on the bias [basically 14-16 oz of meat]
• 16 oz large shrimp, peeled, deveined.
• 2 cups Napa cabbage  cut into ribbons

Instructions

1. In a deep pot or saute pan if you’re transferring, render what fat is present from the meat for a few minutes.  Add water if they start to stick to the pan bottom to saute them.
2. Add onions,  olive oil or use a spray to lightly coat and saute until the point of carmelization
3. Add peppers, [and mushrooms if they're aren't thinly sliced]saute until the peppers brighten [the color brightens indicating they're tender crisp]
4. Add stock, spices and tomatoes.  Stir to combine.
5. Add cabbage in phases [unless your pot is deep enough to handle it], Cover and let simmer until cabbage wilts into soup
6. Add shrimp [they won't take long] and mushrooms if you used thinly sliced ones
7. Simmer until shrimp are cooked through.
8. Cool before storing.