Kale, Potato & White Bean Soup

 

You can file this baby under repertoire basics.  This soup is so easy to make, super versatile and packed with nutrients and flavor.  It’s a ’go to’ pleaser that you’ll make once following the exact recipe and then never need to reference it again.  I adapted this from a recipe that was simpler, but didn’t provide enough protein or layers to keep me satiated.  I usually make a big pot once a week and freeze portions that I can defrost whenever I’m hungry and don’t have time to cook.  Its first incarnation did not include leeks, herkutähti (ceps) or white beans.  It was good, but quite thin and more of an appetizer than a whole meal.  The leeks add depth to the onion already present, the white beans add protein and texture and the ceps pack a flavor punch that’s almost (but not quite) sausagy!  

Ingredients (2-4 servings):

5 medium potatoes, diced

1/2 large yellow onion, sliced

1/2 leek (white and light green part only), sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced or crushed

300g white beans 

100g fresh green kale, stemmed and chopped

2 tbsp veggie broth powder (or enough broth to cover potatoes)

a handful of dried ceps

two sprigs fresh rosemary

Maldon sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

 

Directions: To begin; slice, dice, mince and chop all ingredients.  A note on size, think about the size of your spoons and how big you’d like the veggies to feel in your mouth.  Not too big, not so small that they disappear.  It’s home cooking so the size doesn’t need to be uniform from piece to piece, just close and appetizing!  Always consider cook time when preparing vegetables for soups and stews.  A large size will stand up to a longer cooking time, but for a short cook time the size should be appropriately smaller so that the veg will cook all the way through.  When you dice your potatoes, make sure to hold them covered in cold water.  They will start to brown if you leave them skinned and cut in the open air!  For ease, I use a garlic press instead of mincing the garlic by hand.  The kale is simply washed, the thick stem removed, and torn or rough chopped into bite size pieces.  Finally, I use canned beans (the horror!) and usually dump the whole mess into the pot!  As long as there isn’t a ridiculous amount of liquid in with the beans, the extra starch will just serve to thicken the broth.  
 
Once your veg is ready and waiting by the stove, heat the olive oil in a medium sized soup pot over medium high heat.  We want to sweat the onions, garlic and leeks but not produce any color or browning.  Carmelization adds tremendous flavor, but we aren’t looking for that with this soup.  Once the oil is warm to hot, add the onions first and sauté for a few minutes or until their color turns translucent.  If you start to see color developing, turn the heat down!  Next add the minced garlic and sauté until fragrant, about a minute.  Lastly, during this stage add your leeks.  These will release quite a bit of liquid and therefore steam and sauté at the same time.  What you’re looking for here is a deepening or brightening of their green color which will take two to three minutes.
 

Directions cont.:  Once you’ve sufficiently sweated your aromatics, add your diced potatoes along with enough room temperature or cold water to cover them by an inch (5cm) or thereabouts, and the veggie broth powder.  The pot is going to cook uncovered and will therefore lose a little bit of liquid along the way.  We are making a soup, so we want some broth!  I use a veggie bouillion at the moment.  I can make veggie stock, of course, but my fridge is quite small and I have to prioritize!  If you’re using your own veggie broth, add that instead of water.  As soon as you’ve added your potatoes and water (or broth), add the white beans and bring the pot to a boil.  Once boiling, turn down to a simmer and let it bubble for twenty minutes.  

About ten minutes into the simmering stage, throw in your handful of dried ceps.  I love them!  Literally one reason I stay in Finland is that I can go get as many free ones from the forest as I can find.  You can substitute another mushroom type if you don’t like these, but…. yums…  At the same time, add the rosemary, sea salt and black pepper.  Fresh herbs are delicate and can quickly bloom and fade during the cooking process.  I usually add them as close to the end as possible.  The goal is to let their flavor seep into the veg, but not disappear completely.  I think the ceps and rosemary are the real stars of this meal, so treat them carefully!  Conversely, salt and pepper can concentrate and overpower if added too soon, but won’t inform the flavor of the vegetable if added only at the end.  I almost always use Maldon sea salt for its exceptional flavor.  It isn’t the cheapest, but it’s the best.  However, I’ve recently started using Himlayan pink salt more frequently for the health benefits.  I am a salt addict and that will eventually catch up with me, so I thought I could at least make the salt itself a little healthier (I know this won’t help much).  If you are a consist Maldon user, you will notice a difference but it will fade.  Remember, if you’ve used veggie broth powder it usually contains salt as a preservative.  It can be easy to oversalt, so go carefully.  You can always add salt to taste when serving.  

Once your twenty minute simmer has finished, add the chopped kale directly on top and use a spoon to push it down into the liquid.  It’s going to look like it won’t fit, but it will!  Get it in there!  Let that braise for 5 minutes, or until the dark green of the kale has deepened in color.  Don’t overcook your kale!  That’s why some people can’t stand the taste.  It’s much better undercooked than overcooked, so watch for the color change and take it off the heat immediately.  There’s always a little bit of carry over cooking because the pot is still hot.  A side note, if you are planning to store the leftovers as I do, only add as much kale as you plan to eat right away.  When you reheat each portion, add fresh kale.  It cooks so quickly that it’s not going to bother anything and will taste much better than reheated greens.  

 

Serving suggestions:  I so rarely eat bread, it’s just I don’t crave it at all so I never think of making any.  However, everyone else loooovees bread!  So any crusty, hearty little ditty will do.  I suggest toasting it somehow as the texture will work nicely with that of the soup.  You could do a lovely garlic toast or here I’ve just added some sea salt crostini.  

I initially paired this soup with a sparkling wine, but I wound up reshooting (because technical difficulties) and had a gorgeous little red on accident! It was so good that it didn’t really matter that it wasn’t for this…  I’ll do the next post on the sparkling I paired and the red.