Merguez Sausage, White Bean and Swiss Chard Soup

I made this soup tonight and based it roughly on an Italian sausage soup recipe. However, I changed several ingredients mainly to adjust to what I had in the house. The principal important ingredients are merguez sausage (lamb or beef usually), beans (white or not white) and greens (I used swiss chard, but kale would also be excellent).

Ingredients:

2 T olive oil
8 sausages - about 1.25 lbs of meat
1 leek, finely chopped
2 shallots, finely chopped
8 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 can white beans, with liquid
1-1.5 cups chopped tomato (fresh or canned)
1 large bunch of swiss chard (red chard looks nice)
3-4 cups chicken broth
1-2 tsp thyme
1/2 - 1 tsp white pepper
1/2 - 1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 - 1 tsp turmeric
salt and black pepper to taste

Directions: In a large pot, heat olive oil and add whole sausages. Fry until browned on all sides. When browned, add garlic, shallots, leek and sautee for 2 minutes. Add beans, broth, tomatoes, and all spices and bring to a simmer. While the liquid gets hot, take sausages out of the pot one at a time w/ a slotted spoon, cut them into bite sized pieces, and put the pieces back in the soup. Let the soup simmer for a few minutes to make sure sausage is fully cooked, then add swiss chard. Continue simmer until swiss chard is tender. Serve immediately, or save to serve later or the next day. The soup is very nice with a squeeze of lime or lemon.

I ended up inventing this recipe because one of the vendors at the Ferry Building gave me all of this sausage for free. Merguez sausage is very good and has nice spices that really add to the flavor of this soup, but a similar soup can easily be made w/ other types of sausage.