Surprising, then, that I should crave something so definite. I also know how fake it sounds when people say things like this when we live in the junk food era, and believe me, no one is more surprised about my new-found love of kale than I am. I used to hear people say that they loved things like kale and glare at them skeptically. My mom, on the other hand, would tell you that she's not surprised by this behavior from me. She tells a story of how, as a two-year-old child, to the disbelief of our waitress, I ordered a salad. When it came, the waitress set it in front of my mother, I snatched it from her, and exclaimed, "Salad!" in an excited and adorable way. Maybe you can detox from all the crap food and actually start to crave healthy foods again.
The good news is that I had kale at home! In fact, I had two different kinds of kale at home, red and green kale. I bought them for the kale chips that I made here and for a lemony white bean and kale soup that I found here. I hadn't made the soup yet, but I figured that it was as good a time as any since the baby is still getting over being sick and Tony got sick too.
The recipe was really good, but it was not vegan the way that we made it. We had leftover chicken stock that needed to be used, and it also called for a tablespoon of butter. But two small tweaks, and this soup would easily be vegan. I just had at least two and a half cartons of chicken stock that we had bought in bulk at Costco that I didn't want to waste. The butter could easily be omitted. It didn't really contribute to the flavor of the soup in too meaningful a way, and it make the surface a bit oily. That or it could be replaced by another tablespoon of olive oil.
The lemon in this soup is the thing that really makes it extraordinary. The burst of freshness that it contributes is the real star here. It pairs so well with the rosemary, thyme, and oregano that it makes you wonder why you never thought to put lemon in a soup before--or it did for me because I've never put lemon in a soup before! The only thing I wish I had done differently with this is tear the kale into smaller pieces so they were a little easier to get in a bite. The kale stands up really well to the heat of the soup, so it's an ideal green for this sort of application. The recipe suggested that spinach or chard can be used instead, but I feel those would be far inferior in both mouth-feel and flavor. The kale and lemon go so well together that I cannot conceive of replacing the kale here.
Each night that we try a new recipe, Tony and I have a discussion about it. The discussion always ends with me posing a question to him: is this a do-over? Because if he doesn't like it, then there's no point in me making an entire meal that he won't eat. Tonight, I didn't ask that question. Tonight, I said, "Oh yes. OH YES. This is a keeper." There was no debate. I'm definitely making this one again. It was also really filling. We each had one bowl and that was enough to satisfy us both.
The other good news is that this soup only called for about a cup and a half of kale. Since I had a whole bunch of kale, I had plenty of extra kale to use to make some kale chips. Overall, I would say today was a culinary win. I satisfied a craving, and I found something new that was really awesome, cheap to produce, and quick to make. Not a bad way to spend an evening.
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