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Thursday, October 10, 2013

Kale and Chorizo Soup


I had heard about it, seen the sign for it but,  had never visited the little Farmers Market that set up every Saturday at a local park. The Market is open from the middle of June till right before Thanksgiving, which means I'm a little late to the party but at least I'll have a few weeks to enjoy shopping there. Don't these veggies look wonderful? I know you can't see everything in the basket, but there are a couple of types of onion, yellow and butternut squash, tomatoes, sweet potato, apples and kale. We think we did okay with the price, around eight bucks for what's in the basket, but what was most important to us is that it was farm fresh.

The inspiration for this soup was the kale. I know lots of folks who make smoothies using kale but that didn't really appeal to me , so since I have never cooked with kale before, it was off to the Internet to see if I could find a recipe that looked good. I found lots of recipes but they either used ingredients I didn't have or ingredients I didn't like, so I came up with a version of my own.


Kale and Chorizo Soup

1/2 large onion chopped (about a cup)
3 cloves garlic minced
1tablespoon olive oil
6-8 cups kale, washed, stems trimmed off, then roughly cut
8 ounces fresh chorizo sausage, casings removed (most for the recipes I saw called for diced smoked chorizo but I didn't have any in the house)
1 14 1/2 ounce can diced tomatoes
4 cans chicken broth
2 cans cannellini beans
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon pepper flake blend

Saute the sausage, onions and garlic in the olive oil until sausage cooked, then add kale until wilted just a bit, about 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes, beans, chicken broth and spices, then simmer about 30 minutes or until kale is texture that you like. (I didn't mention salt because I didn't add it but you may want to salt to your taste) Pair it with some nice bread and you have a meal.

The spices I used

This soup is pretty adaptable, I think you can use any kind of white bean or even kidney beans and the next time I make this I may try the smoked chorizo. The best part of this soup for us, is that there is going to be a lot of leftovers, which is good cause I hear it's going to be raining for the next couple of days....enjoy!

This recipe adapted from Cooking Light recipe November 2010

6 comments:

http://bitsandpieces-sonja.blogspot.com/ said...

Boy does that soup look good!! This is a keeper for me, I will be trying it out and no doubt make cornbread too, my hubby's favorite. Thanks for sharing.

living from glory to glory said...

Hello, This is a wonderful looking soup! I could eat soup everyday!
Farmers Markets are the best. We live in the country so we just stop off at the farms when we drive to town!
I think they may be closing early this year!
Blessings, Roxy

GratefulPrayerThankfulHeart said...

Oh, boy, does this soup look delicious! I have never made kale and don't know what it tastes like. I do hear it is packed with nutrition. Looks like you came up with a very good recipe using the beautiful fresh produce.

Kathleen said...

Yum! Mix up a batch of cornbread & I'm totally in!

It's Soup Season, for sure. It's gotten quite cool here at night, so I've been hungry for Split Pea, Chili, Stew, etc. I love this time of year, especially with Thanksgiving on the horizon.

Blessings,
Kathleen

Debbie said...

I used to be one of the ones who only used kale in smoothies. This spring, I started to try it in other recipes, and now I'm even more of a kale girl. The health benefits are so powerful so I'm glad I am. I definitely would like to try your soup.

Debbie said...

Of course, I'm going to have to google chorizo first...