Thursday, September 8, 2011

Kale Soup for Any Soul

Ok I've never read ANY of the Chicken Soup books for any of the various souls it was directed towards...what I have had is kale soup and I promise this will be good for your body and soul.

Back before I started blogging my husband and I developed this recipe.

You see it was developed out of a need to use up some of the vegetables from our CSA (which we had just started to receive).

We had an abundance of kale and neither of knew if we liked it or what to do with it.

We decided the simplest thing to do would be to make soup, so I give you kale soup (and because this was created prior to blogging I do not have step by step pictures).

Your base will be a garlic broth:

6 C vegetable stock (you can substitute water)
3 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp paprika
pinch of sage (to your liking)
pinch of thyme (to your liking)
salt and pepper to taste

Saute your garlic in the olive oil in a pot over low-medium heat (do not cook the garlic so much that it turns brown, it should be golden).  While that is working it's magic boil your stock/water.

Once your stock comes to a boil add it to the garlic.

Stir in your paprika, sage, and thyme.

Bring this to a boil and then allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes (the longer it simmers the more intense the flavor will be).  Then salt and pepper.

For the soup:

Garlic broth
4 medium fresh tomatoes (or about 2 cups canned)
1 bunch kale torn
1 onion diced
1 C shiitake mushrooms chopped
2 carrots peeled and diced

Chop your tomatoes (or empty your cans) into the broth pot and add your kale, onions, carrots, and mushrooms.  For the kale we just tore it into bite size pieces by hand but you are free to make the pieces any size you like.

This will need to be brought to a boil and then allowed to simmer for 10-15 minutes.

While the soup is simmering boil your pasta according to the package directions (or you could make your own if you are ambitious).

We added Pasta Prima Portabello Mushroom Ravioli.  These suckers were huge (so we only added a couple to each bowl).




This soup is very versatile and would lend itself to the addition of a number of other vegetables if you have them on hand, make it your own :)  PLUS it freezes very well.

16 comments:

  1. THIS I could do! It's coming on soup season! Thanks for the great idea! Love the addition of the pasta ... pasta's always good!

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  2. YUM YUM YUM! Definitely on the to-do list. I want to try this with gnocchi, maybe?

    When I make soup, I always do the garlic AND the onion together in the bottom of the pot before adding liquid. I wonder how that would change the flavour of this soup? Not having tried it, I'd guess it'd probably be really subtle, but I know onions take on a bit of a sweetness when they're cooked and all that caramelized goodness can only do good things to broth.

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  3. This sounds wonderful! It's amazing how a bowl of soup really can soothe the soul. It's starting to get cooler here so I'll make this soon. Thanks!

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  4. I love kale! I started throwing it in a lot of my soups a while back and I quickly fell in love. I love the idea of adding ravioli to the soup too. Yum!

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  5. The base of the soup alone sounds so good! I have some broth I need to use from my eggplant stew... I may try a halved version of this. Thank you!!

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  6. Oooh I love the idea of throwing a few ravioli in there. So smart!

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  7. Rachel, what a great use of your CSA bounty - the soup looks heart warming and delicious. What more could you ask from a soup? I quite like the paprika and sage seasoning - unique!

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  8. I love kale but I've never put it in a soup before. I'll definitely give this a go. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
    By far our favourite way of serving kale is by making 'crispy kale' (I think it's called 'Kale Chips' in the USA). http://bitofthegoodstuff.com/recipes/crispy-kale/
    It's a great way to get kids eating kale. I don't even add any salt, just a tiny sprinkling of sugar. It reminds me a lot of the 'crispy seaweed' you get in Chinese restaurants :)
    Have a great weekend! x

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  9. Mmm, my soul could use a little of this soup right now.

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  10. Yum! This sounds perfect for the cool and rainy weather we have right now.

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  11. This looks delicious! I love Kale and I love soup!

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  12. Yummy, my daughter loves kale. I've read a few of those books, the horse one makes me cry.

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  13. DELICIOUS!!!!!!! Perfect weather for this soup! I will try it!

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