Sausage, Chickpea, and Kale Stew

(originally from The Kitchen Shelf cookbook, but with the stupid stuff fixed)

• 1 pkg Johnsonville Italian Sausage, either cased or loose
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper
• 2x 14oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• ~3 cups soup stock (any type; can be from boullion)
• Kale: 1 7oz bag or one fresh bunch.
  • Note: For fresh Kale, it's easier if you freeze it yourself in a bag first (see Lazy Kale Maneuver)
• 2 tsp mustard seed or brown mustard
• Salt/pepper to taste
• Optional:
  • Onion or onion powder

1. If using a bunch of fresh kale you froze yourself, perform the Lazy Kale Manuver (see below)
2. Slice the sausage and brown it.
3. Add garlic and crushed red pepper. You can add some onion now if you want.
4. Cook ~2 min.
5. Meanwhile, puree 1/2 can of chickpeas in food processor, or mash manually; set aside. Or just skip this if you want.
6. Put remaining whole chickpeas and soup stock into pan. (If using boullion, you can do that plus 3 cups boiling water)
7. Simmer 10 min
8. Add kale and mashed chickpeas
9. Simmer for 5 min
10. Add mustard, then salt and pepper to taste

If you have a whole bunch of fresh kale, do this:

1. Freeze it fully in a bag.
2. Take the bag out and hit it with a meat tenderizer or hammer or just beat it up yourself. The frozen kale breaks up and you don't have to do a ton of tedious chopping.
3. Remove the big whole stems.
4. Return to freezer until it's time to deploy.