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