Italian pantry soup

I love Olive Garden's zuppa toscana.  It is the only way I think I would have tried kale, initially.  You have to remember I was a picky eater, up until about 7 years ago.  The only cooked vegetables I would eat were corn and potatoes.  Really.  I have come a long way since then, but I still am looking to increase my veggie intake, and really, shouldn't we all increase our vegetable intake?  This soup was born of my love for the zuppa at OG, but I was hampered by what I actually had in house.  And instead of making a special trip to the store to buy ingredients, I decided to bastardize my own version of the soup.  It was a very delicious experiment!

Italian pantry soup
1 can white cannelini beans, well-rinsed
4 Italian (chicken) sausages
1 tsp. oil
1 large russet potato, washed and sliced thin
6 c. water
1/2 c. chopped onion
2 tsp. chopped garlic
1 large bunch kale, rinsed, drained, and chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp. better than bouillon soup base

In a high-sided skillet, warm oil and brown sausages on all sides.  Remove to a plate and cut length-wise and return to pan to brown insides.  Remove to a paper plate and cut into bite-sized pieces and allow to drain.  In a crockpot or large stock pot, put beans, sausage pieces, sliced potato, onion, garlic, water, and soup base.  Cook on low in crock for ~6 hrs. or on stove-top in stock pot until potato is fork tender.  When soup is ready, add kale and cover for 5-10 minutes to wilt kale.  Serve hot.

If you like it hot, you could add some crushed red pepper.  If you like it creamy, like OG's, you could add either some heavy cream, a dollop of cream cheese or sour cream, or pureed potatoes to the broth in order to give it that creamy consistency.