Kale & White Bean Soup

With January well under way, I have been making soup a staple of our diet.  We have tried some new recipes and some traditional healthy recipes for a good start to the new year.  The first one I made was a kale and white bean soup.  It is healthy and easy to make and can be made 1 to 2 days ahead.  The flavors just seem to blend with age.  

Kale & White Bean Soup

Ingredients:

• 2- 15 oz. cans White Kidney, Navy, Cannellini, or Great Northern Beans
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves or 1 Tbsp. minced garlic
• 2- 14.5 oz. cans chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp. rosemary
• 1/2 to 1 lb . sausage or smoked sausage such as kielbasa
• 1/2 lb. baby carrots
• 1-lb. kale, stems and center ribs discarded and leaves coarsely chopped
• 3-6 green onions, optional

(This recipe modified from Epicurious.com)

Printable version of recipe:  Kale & White Bean PDF https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6nRIiDbLtgGb1A4eWthRTVJQkU/edit

Gather the ingredients.

Brown sausage in heavy soup pot.

When sausage has browned, transfer to paper towels to drain.

Coarsely chop an onion, and saute in soup pan over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, 4 -5 minutes.  You may need to add 2 tbsp. olive oil to the pan, if you have drained all the sausage grease after cooking the sausage.

After onion is cooked, add sausage back to pan and add garlic and cook, stirring, 1 minute.

Add 2 cups water.

Add chicken broth.

Rinse and drain white beans.

Add beans.

Add bay leaf.

Add 1 tsp. rosemary.

Season with pepper and salt to taste.

Chop green onions if you have them on hand (optional).

Coarsely chop carrots into 1/2-inch pieces.

Add to pot and simmer, uncovered, until the vegetables are tender.

Kale is a nutritional superfood- it almost makes broccoli look like Doritos.

(from precisionnutrition.com)
Kale: a nutritional powerhouse

Kale is jacked with nutrition.  It's extremely dilute in energy (in other words, a lot of kale doesn't add

up to many calories...but it sure adds up to a lot of nutrients).

1 cup of kale provides:

• 33 calories
• 7 g carbohydrate
• 2 g protein
• 0.5 g fat
• 1 gram fibre

Kale has a near-perfect protein score of 92 (ideal is 100), which means that it contains nearly a full

complement of all the essential amino acids.

Kale actually provides more calcium per calorie than dairy foods.  Research has shown that calcium is 

better absorbed from kale than from milk.

Prepare kale by removing stems and center ribs and coarsely chopping  leaves.

Stir in kale and simmer, uncovered, until kale is tender, 12-15 minutes.

Serve with baguette & roasted red pepper spread.
Enjoy!