Sunday, February 6, 2011

Soup for a Snowbound Night


Like many people in the US this winter, we're spending a lot of nights hunkered down, waiting out the storm.  What better thing to do on a cold, snowy evening than make a vat of soup to eat with toasted bread and cheese?  Something I may not have mentioned in a while is that I was a cook in a former life.  One of the many things I did every day at my job was whip up huge cauldrons of soup from scratch, usually at least three a day, almost none of them from a recipe, or if they were from recipes, they were usually ones I'd made up based on what looked fresh and plentiful in the walk-in that day.  I kept the recipes safe in the top-secret vault inside my head.

It has been a long time since I cooked for a living, but I still cook every day.  I don't keep my recipes secret anymore, though.  Life's too short and food tastes too good for secret recipes.

So, one of the soups I made most often back in the day was some variation of potato-kale.  It's a very basic soup, but delicious.  I don't eat meat, so I make this as a vegetarian soup, but one could easily make it with chicken stock and chicken meat.  You could even toss in a little turkey or turkey sausage.  It's a great recipe for using up things you've got, and it is very, very heart-healthy.  You'll notice I don't have a lot of exact measurements. I make soup by feel, smell, and taste.  I measure everything precisely when I bake, but never when I cook.

Potato, Kale, and Beet-Green Soup

In a stockpot over medium heat, saute in olive oil:
  • 1 small yellow onion, diced 
  • 1 or 2 shallots, diced
  • 3 or 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 or 2 stalks celery, diced.
  • salt and pepper
Let the vegetables soften and begin to caramelize, being careful not to scorch them, for about 10 minutes.  As they're cooking, dice about 3-4 medium potatoes.  I use boiling potatoes for this, not baking potatoes.  You want ones that have relatively thin skin and less starch content so that they'll be nice and creamy.  I scrub the potatoes well and leave the skins on, then I dice them up and toss them right in with the other veggies.

To the veggies, add enough warm vegetable stock to cover, then add more stock until it reaches about 2 or 3 inches above the vegetables.  You can use homemade stock, which I usually do, or you can use store-bought.  A good store-bought brand is Pacific.

As the vegetables come to a simmer, prepare the greens:
  • 1 medium-ish bunch kale (between 10 and 15 stalks)
  • 1 bunch beet greens (I use greens that I've cut off the tops of beets I used the day before in another recipe.  Instead of throwing all those lovely greens away, I save them for this soup).
Cut the tough stems out of all the greens.  Discard the stems and then chop the greens roughly.  Wash them well.  I give them 2 or 3 good wash cycles, changing the water each time.  You don't need to dry them.

Toss the greens in with the veggies and stock, adding a bit more salt and pepper at this point.  Pop the lid on and let the whole thing simmer away for a good 45 minutes to an hour, stirring every ten minutes or so.  If it needs more liquid, ladle in more stock.  Taste a few times, too, and adjust the seasonings.  

Near the end of the cooking time I toss in a large handful of chopped, fresh, flat-leaf parsley.  You could add any herbs your heart desires.

The last step is to puree the whole thing.  I use an immersion stick blender, and I blend it until the greens are in small pieces.  The goal is to make a rustic soup rather than a perfectly smooth one.

It's great served as-is, but it's over-the-top with a little grated cheese and some croutons or toasted bread.  Tonight I had it with a grilled cheddar sandwich.  Heavenly. 





17 comments:

  1. Reading your recipe reminded of the soups my mother used to make when I was a child, I could not wait to come home and have some. Looks like we're having soup tonight, Thank you for sharing your secret ;-)

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  2. That looks so yummy. Warming too. Have a great day.

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  3. Is there anything better than making a big pot of soup on a cold windy day?
    ( Well yes, there's lying on a warm beach with one's toes in the water, but still.)

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  4. Oh yum, thank you for sharing! I must get an immersion blender soon, I'm a huge fan of soup and too messy a cook to be transferring hot soup from the pan to the blender and back — something I've proved on numerous occasions.

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  5. Me, too. m. I've scalded myself on many occasions. The immersion blender saves my skin--literally!

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  6. Virginia isn't expecting any snow but we can always use a good soup!

    Lovely recipe.

    xo Jane

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  7. I feel a bit guilty to admit that I made beef bourguignon tonight. Not quite so heart-healthy, although very comforting. We can have this delicious-sounding soup next . . .

    I'm so glad that you share recipes now!

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  8. That looks so good. It would be warm and cozy on my tummy. It reminded me of a mushroom soup I make and now I am really hungry.

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  9. This looks and sounds delicious. I am looking for ways to use kale and beet greens so this one is going on my list! Blending it with the blender is a good idea. Both kids don't care for the greens floating in the soup if they are too bitter. Thanks!

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  10. We have been having LOTS of soup this winter too...it is the best thing on snowy days for sure:) This looks delicious!

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  11. A cook??!! Now why am I not surprised? ;o) Cooking is another form of creativity, after all... This soup is marvelous--Thank you for sharing your recipe, Gigi. I like these cold-weather flavors... We've been doing lots of soups this winter. Happy Days, my friend ((HUGS))

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  12. Deeply relaxing recipe:)
    Tweaking my grocery list now.
    Thanks,
    Jennifer

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  13. I remember your kale soup...it was often my dinner before my waitress shift! I am going to make this!

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  14. I love the generosity of sharing a recipe. It always struck me as singularly selfish to not share one. I don't mean professional cooks, of course, that's their living. I mean when a friend refuses to share it just seems stingy. There is a wide open generosity in recipe sharing that always thrills me when I come across it. So, thank you.

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  15. Hello sweet Gigi :)

    Kale is one of those mysterious vegetables that I am trying to get more acquainted with. I recently put it in a favourite soup recipe and loved it because I couldn't taste the kale but I was getting all the good nutrients from it. I don't know...it seems so coarse to eat in a salad, but maybe I am wrong? Perhaps your soup recipe would be the next step towards getting more of this powerful green in my diet! Thank you for sharing!

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  16. I see you discard the stems of such vegetables. Is there no hope for them in cooking? I have on occasion cut them chunk size and put into the crock pot as one of the vegetables. They always seem to come out quite soft and edible.

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  17. Good point. I usually save the tough stems of greens for making stock. I also cut them up and use them in stews sometimes, but for this particular soup I don't usually use them because I puree it, and I find the stems a little to fibrous to puree well.

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