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This Italian chili is the perfect healthy chili recipe that utilizes ground turkey sausage. There is a big difference between ground turkey and ground turkey sausage. Ground turkey looks like ground beef and cooks up really white. The turkey sausage is usually located next to traditional pork breakfast sausage rolls. That’s what you want. You get the flavor of sausage with way less calories, fat and more protein. It’s a great substitute.
Due to the consistency this is more like a soup than a chili, but it’s been named this for years so why change it now? Ladling over noodles helps bulk up the recipe and makes it more filling. Try the Banza chickpea noodles. They’re also a great substitute because they’re gluten free and contain a lot of protein. It’s my favorite healthy pasta substitute by far. If you can’t find them in your local grocery store use that link above to grab a variety pack from amazon.
To create a creamier texture the recipe calls for 8 oz of 1/3 of the fat cream cheese. You can always use regular cream cheese or heavy whipping cream. The idea here though is to make a healthy chili recipe. Utilizing reduced fat cream cheese saves calories, fat and is the same amount of protein. Do the easy substitutions where you can! The final tip is to add baby spinach leaves to individual bowls. That way the spinach doesn’t disintegrate in the pot and those that don’t want it don’t have to pick it out of their serving.
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Healthy Italian Chili
Ingredients
- 1 lb turkey breakfast sausage
- 1 onion diced
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1/3 c white wine
- 28 oz crushed tomatoes
- 64 oz chicken stock (2 cartons)
- 8 oz 1/3 of the fat cream cheese softened
- pasta noodles cooked
- 1 c fresh baby spinach leaves
Seasoning
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Brown sausage and onions for 20 minutes
- Add garlic and cook for 5 minutes. Deglaze with white wine. Scrape up all the brown bits.
- Add crushed tomatoes, chicken stock and seasoning. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.
- Add cream cheese, whisk until incorporated.
- Ladle over noodles and add fresh spinach to each bowl.
- Top with shaved parmesan cheese.