Kale Soup
Great fall and winter soup. Warming and nourishing. I make it a lot for myself. Freezes fine.
Great fall and winter soup. Warming and nourishing. I make it a lot for myself. Freezes fine.
- salt
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoon butter
- 8 cups chicken stock
- pepper to taste
- 1 cup onions chopped
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon basil
- 1/2 cup carrots chopped
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2 cup celery chopped
- 4 medium potatoes
- 2 cups beef stock
- 1 pound kale thoroughly washed
- 1 pound linugica or other sausage
- 2 lbs tomatoes fresh or canned
- 19 ounces garbanzo beans cooked
- Carbohydrate 61.8755989583333 g
- Cholesterol 62.3791454191311 mg
- Fat 25.9232953171614 g
- Fiber 6.42586558284646 g
- Protein 37.0232240469947 g
- Saturated Fat 8.73238402653123 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (1140g)
- Sodium 2210.18491623209 mg
- Sugar 55.4497333754869 g
- Trans Fat 2.27656333516353 g
- Calories 624 calories
Step-by-step
- Use tender part of kale only -leaves, no stems. Chop into fairly small pieces. Set aside
- If using fresh tomatoes, peel, seed & chop them and set aside. (I don't do this. I just chop them.)
- Prick sausage with a fork and drop into boiling water for 10 minutes, to get rid of the fat. Quarter the cooked sausage lengthwise and cut into 1/2" pieces.
- Melt the butter and oil in a large heavy soup pot; add celery, onions, carrots, and garlic. Cood slowly until soft.
- Add potatoes, chicken stock and beef broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook, partially covered, for 15 minutes, until potatoes are cooked thoroughly.
- Stir in tomatoes and garbanzo beans. Simmer 15 minutes more.
- Add kale, sausage, basil, thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer about 7 minutes more. Serve!
Swapping linguiça for a standard smoked pork sausage alters the fat profile significantly, requiring that initial ten-minute boil to render excess greasiness before the meat enters the pot. Without that preliminary plunge in boiling water, excess rendered animal fat will coat the surface of the broth and overpower the delicate aromatic qualities of the butter and olive oil base.
Chemical Interaction and Flavor Balancing
Combining chicken stock and beef stock creates a dual-layer umami foundation that supports heavy root vegetables and fibrous greens. Glutamates from the beef broth pair with the natural sugars in the two pounds of tomatoes, while the garbanzo beans introduce vegetal starch that thickens the liquid slightly as it simmers. Cooking the celery, onions, carrots, and garlic slowly in fat breaks down their cell walls, releasing natural sugars that counteract the sharp acidity of the tomatoes without requiring added sweeteners. Kale contains bitter glucosinolates that soften when exposed to the simmering broth for the final seven minutes of cooking, neutralizing harsh flavors while retaining a vibrant green color.
- If the potatoes disintegrate into the broth, reduce the initial simmering time from fifteen minutes to twelve minutes.
- Should the soup taste overly salty after adding the stock and sausage, drop a peeled raw potato half into the pot for ten minutes to absorb excess sodium.
- Store leftovers in airtight glass containers for up to four days or freeze for up to three months.
