Wednesday 22 June 2011

What does one do with kale anyway?


So in our food box last week we got kale.  Being home on maternity leave has allowed me time to watch thrilling day time tv shows like Dr. Oz, who has eyebrows that scare me... just a little.  Anyway, Dr. Oz who is apparently an expert on everything talks a lot about kale.  I'm not sure what he says exactly because I don't really listen that closely but apparently it is a super food or something. I suppose if a food is considered "super" I should probably be trying to eat more of it.

Needless to say, I have never tasted kale before, let alone tried to cook it in something.  So I did a google search and came up with a recipe for Kale and White Bean Soup.

I will apologize for my lack of pictures... Lila was having a very fussy kind of day and I was really working hard to get this soup going and keep her entertained.

I pretty much followed the recipe as it is.  I heated some oil in the stock pot.  I chopped up some yellow onion, one of our giant carrots and some garlic and tossed that in. I let it simmer for a few minutes to soften it up.  Then I chopped up the kale and threw that in the pot, letting it cook until it was wilted.  I also chopped up some green onion that I needed to use up and grabbed some garlic chives, garden chives and basil from my herb garden (which is doing very well, thanks for asking!).  I let this all simmer together for a few minutes so the flavors could mix and mingle. I dumped in some chicken stock and some of the beans (I used canned white navy beans).  Then I blended up the remaining beans and chicken stock and dumped that in with the veggies.  I diced up two tomatoes and tossed those in the pot. Then I added the italian seasoning and also some garlic plus, because I love garlic plus and add it to almost everything I cook!

I made a salad with fresh mixed greens, cucumber, strawberries and sesame seeds.  I also bought some fresh bread from our local farmers market and even dug out some real butter for it!  Dinner was delicious and nutritious!


Lila enjoyed it.  I think she especially enjoyed peeling the kale off of her belly and eating it!

This soup was okay.  It tasted like something was missing but I'm not sure what. Maybe it needed some more garlic plus?  The texture was a little strange as well, probably due to the pureed beans that were meant to thicken the soup but kind of just made it feel a little chalky.  All in all I thought this soup was just okay and I probably wouldn't make it again.  Luckily there was no kale in this weeks box so I won't have to find a new recipe for the time being!

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