Vegetarian Soy Chorizo, Navy Bean, Kale Soup

After the pasta I had the other night, it was time to get back to healthy eating for the weekend.  Leave out the Parmesan cheese and this dish would be vegan.  I've posted a version of this soup before, but I'm doing it again so I can remember what Trader Joe's "Soy Chorizo" tastes like.  It was cheap too!

I read that you can't eat the casing and it says so on the packaging.  I decided to fry it in the casing (I wouldn't bother doing that next time), then take it off and slice it into rounds.

As I tried to cut the sausage in half after I flipped it, the casing fell off, and then I had ground chorizo.

I guess I wasn't getting "slices" like I expected.  It tasted good...tasted like chorizo, though salty - though all sausages are, aren't they?  There is high sodium in this product.  It was spicy (not hot spicy but chorizo spicy, if you know what I mean?) and I liked it.  I don't know why I'm so surprised each time I taste a new vegan item, and like it...😲  I guess it's because I have such low expectations, lol.  For the rest of the soup today, I used:

• 1.5 cups dried navy beans, soaked for 8 hours in cold water and then rinsed 
• 8 cups of stock made from "Better than Bouillon Vegetable Base"
• 1 large sweet onion, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 large red pepper, diced
• 2 wild carrots, diced
• 1 fresh thyme bundle, tied in twine
• 1 Parmesan cheese rind
• Freshly cracked pepper
• 1 tablespoon of Trader Joe's no salt, "21 Seasoning Salute"
• 1 bunch of curly kale, stems removed and chopped

I sauteed the onion, pepper and garlic.

I added back in the chorizo.

I added in the seasonings, stock, carrots, thyme, rind and beans.  I brought to a boil and then simmered for an hour.  

In the meantime, I cut up the kale.  

I removed the rind and thyme bundle and then added in the kale last.  I simmered for 15 more minutes and then it was done.  

The beans took the full time to cook.  I'd probably use canned navy beans next time, just for the simplicity of them.  I bought the navy beans to make homemade "pork n' beans" but never did that so thought I'd use them for this.  I garnished with a tablespoon of finely grated Parmesan cheese.

As someone who never eats or has made minestrone soup because it has no meat, I was okay with this.  I would have liked to see the sausage rounds in it from this product, but the chorizo flavor was satisfying enough to overlook that.  I have no complaints and I already asked my co-worker to pick me up some more soy chorizo next time she is at Trader Joe's...two packs, in fact...