A Winter's Kale

After so many beautiful winter days, a gray, rainy day finally arrived.  It was the perfect soup day.  At first I thought I would make my regular potato soup.  It’s quick and easy---I had the ingredients---but, wait.  No, I didn’t.  I was out of ham.  I did have some bacon I could have used instead, but as I looked in my refrigerator and saw some kale I had just bought, I remembered a recipe I had seen in the IBC cookbook—something involving kale and potatoes.  So I looked it up and decided to make a new soup recipe instead.

Menu

Hearty Potato Sausage & Kale Soup (p.48)

Garlic Bread (storebought)

I did not have hot Italian turkey sausage, but I did have turkey breakfast sausage; so I used that instead.  It worked and used up something I had, but next time I will plan ahead to make this soup and buy the spicy sausage.  I put the onion and garlic in to sauté after the meat and then added homemade turkey broth instead of the chicken broth (because it was what I had).  I also added two leeks as they were in my produce drawer and needed to be used before they went bad.  Once they were cooked, I took my immersion blender and blended up the veggies as I personally don’t care for large chunks of onion.  (It’s a texture thing with me. . .and since I was cooking, I went with my preferences.)  Once that was blended, I put in the chunks of potato.  Ah!! Yet another recipe where I don’t have to peel potatoes.  I let those cook for a few minutes and then put in the kale. 

Kale might scare some people, and for those of you who know me well (or at least knew me when I was younger), I’m sure you are shocked that I would willingly buy kale.  I first bought it 2 years ago after a friend of mine posted a recipe for kale.  I never got up the nerve to try it, so the kale went bad and I threw it away.  I know how good kale is for you, though, so when I got a cookbook that had recipes using local/farmer’s market food and saw a recipe for kale chips, I thought, “It is time to try this again.”  So off I went to buy kale.  This time, however, I made the recipe for kale chips and they were a BIG hit with my family.  Andrew & Brian, and even I loved them!  (Not to mention a close bachelor friend we had for dinner.  Thanks, Tom, for being my guinea pig. . .)   Since that time, I get kale on a fairly regular basis and make kale chips.  I hadn’t used it in any other way up to this point, though.  This soup is a GREAT way to introduce kale, as you can chop it up so finely that you might think it is parsley or some other familiar, non-threatening green.  The texture and taste are both negligible and you are getting all the good nutrients!  (Well, most anyway.  I guess some probably cook out, but I would imagine they remain in the broth.)

It was time for me to begin my afternoon of teaching at that point, so I put the soup on low to simmer while I taught.  Technically, this soup is not an all-day soup.  But I had to just leave it as I teach through the dinner prep time and even into dinner time on Mondays. 

At 6:00, I have the changing of the students, and so while one was getting ready for her lesson, I went in and added the milk, sugar, pepper, and nutmeg.   I didn’t have any bouillon cubes, so I just left those out.  I also only put in about 2-2 ½ cups of milk rather than the 4 cups.  Once it got heated through, Brian dished it up for the kids and added the crumbled bacon and cheese to the top.  When I finished teaching, I was able to enjoy a bowl.  My children ate it without complaint.  (My daughter had 2 bowls!)  It is definitely one I will make again.  I do think it needed a little bit more pizzazz, which is why next time I will use the hot Italian sausage.  The rest of the flavors were fine. 

So next time it feels like a soup day, give it a try!

Hearty Potato Sausage & Kale Soup                                          Lois M.

1 (20 oz.) pkg hot Italian turkey sausage         4 c. whole or 2% milk

4 slices bacon                                                2 tsp. chicken bouillon granules

1 med. onion                                                 1 tsp. sugar

2 cloves fresh garlic                                       1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

2 med. potatoes                                             1/4 tsp. nutmeg

2 cans chicken broth (4 c.)                             Parmesan cheese

2 c. chopped fresh kale, washed 

        and stems removed  

Remove casings from the sausage. Dice bacon and brown in a large 4 to 6 quart pot. Remove bacon and drain, keeping the rendered bacon drippings in the pot. Brown the sausage in the pot with the bacon drippings over medium heat, breaking up the sausage links into small pieces as the sausage browns. (Tip: Turkey sausage is so lean that you need the bacon drippings to brown it.) 

Chop onion and garlic cloves and saute in the pot with browned sausage until soft. Scrub potatoes thoroughly, cut in lengthwise quarters, then in 1/4-inch crosswise slices with the peel. Put potatoes and chicken broth in the pot with the sausage, sauteed onions and garlic and cook 5 minutes, scraping bottom of the pot frequently.

Add the prepared kale and cook 15 minutes more. Stir in milk, chicken bouillon, sugar, cayenne pepper, nutmeg and drained bacon and bring back to heat while stirring to prevent the milk from scorching.  Serve topped with fresh ground Parmesan cheese with a tossed salad and crusty Italian bread on the side. Makes about 10 cups soup.