Nurturing my inner... hearty fall soup

I'm going to try and write this out fast.  In part because 1.) I'm cooking a lot and that ironically leaves little time to write about cooking.  2.) I've been going to bed WAY too late.  Night owl + me = *yawn*  Why is it creative people always seem to feel motivated to do things starting at like 11:00 pm?

I have never made anything with kale in my entire life.  The most interaction I've ever had with the leafy green is that I used to work with a guy named Kale and always wondered why he was named after a vegetable.  (Perhaps he had a sister named Swiss Chard.)

The sign at the Farmers' Market said, "First pick of the season."  And the sign on me often says, "Sucker for good advertising," so, of course I bought a huge bunch.  Then I thought, okay, so, now what?  Well, how about a warm, hearty, winter-is-getting-closer-with-each-passing-day-so-like-it-or-not-you'd-better-get-ready-for-it soup?

Sausage, Kale, Potato & Bean Soup

1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage
1 lb kale, rough chopped
2 russet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 can of navy beans, drained
3 cups chicken broth (Or Trader Joe's packets added to water)
6 sprigs of fresh thyme
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

I'm glad I remembered the idea of this soup that I had at a friend's house probably 18 years ago.  (Yes, I have amazing food memory, but don't ask me something historical like when the war of 1812 was, because I'm just not sure.)  As for the soup, I recall it had kale and potatoes in it and was somewhat brothy.  I figured, surely I can whip something up that is similar.  Or, dare I dream, even better...

Introducing: My five and a half quart dutch oven from Le Creuset, in "Dune."  Ta da!  (clapping)  Big purchase, oh yes.  Outlet, coupons, saving up, blah, blah, blah, you know how I roll.  I contemplated buying the oval one, but decided the round just might be a bit more versatile.  I had hopes of making Ina Garten's boeuf bourguignon that I've thought about for approximately four years now, but just haven't gotten to that quite yet.  So before I do inside stove cooking, I needed to do on top of stove cooking in this beauty of a pot.

I need a special spotlight for my prized
possession. Isn't it gorgeous!

Kale is a pretty leafy green.  Has purplish stems.  Very fashionable.  Yet, it needs a slight bit of prep.



It was a BIG bunch, that's for sure.

One thing you have to do, sadly, is remove those pretty stems because you just want the greenage.  That's where all the nutrition is and not all that fibrous stuff that you would just end up chewing and chewing until the cows came home.  (The cows of course don't mind the chewing and chewing, but you do.)



Fan them out flat.


It's super easy.  Honestly, you're not trying to wrestle an alligator today.  We'll save that for another day.  After you've given them a good rinse, just grab the stem and pull up toward the leaf.  As soon as you can say, "Bob's your uncle," (though my uncles had names more like Sal, Joe and Tony) you're done.


So like, that's it? Yep, that's, like it.

Go ahead and give them a rough chop, put them in a bowl and set them aside. Because you've got other things to do.



I thought I was the star of this dish?

I went for a combined shot here.  Not that photographing potatoes isn't exciting (second *yawn*), but I'm an artist and my muse said "group photo!"  (You gonna argue with your muse?  I didn't think so.)



Attention taller ingredients, please line up
in the back. Everybody smile.

Not these two again?  Oh yeah.  They come to almost every party.  Very A list.


Additional flavors need to be added to
jazz up the potatoes and kale.

Normally I like to slice garlic, but this is soup.  So I needed a finer dice.  I'm fairly certain not many people want to bite into a big hunk of garlic when they are having soup.  But if you do, hey, I don't judge you and your odd food habits.  (Weirdo.)



That seems like a lot for some reason.
Maybe the dish is just really small.

The onion doesn't have to be as finely chopped as the garlic, but again you don't want pieces that will really take over any one bite.  Soup is very much a harmonious type of food.  All the parts of it blending together so that no one ingredient steals the show.  Soup is one of the most humblest of meals.


"White on white." Which was actually the name of
a painting in one of my Art History classes. I took
issue with my professor on it. (I'm now infamous
because of the moment I stumped her.)

Olive oil, garlic and onions in on medium heat.  I LOVE how these enamel covered cast iron pans cook.  The heat moves slowly and evenly, so things do not burn.  I really want everyone to go out and buy one.  And I don't even work for Le Creuset.  Get that piggy bank filled up.



Less chance of cooking too fast and burning
 than a traditional pan. Amazing!


I chose russet potatoes for this dish.  Many recipes I perused seemed to prefer those in soup.  I think they end up with a great texture that suits liquids.  I figured I didn't know any better, so I'd follow their advice like a sheep.

Sort of made me crave steak fries. Shake it off,
back to soup. Save fries for another day.

So I halved them, then cut them into strips and then into cubes that were about 1/2 inch square-ish. (I mean, hello, potatoes are oval, so you get odd-shaped pieces.)

Carbs.  Yea!

After your onions and garlic have cooked down a little and have become translucent and pliable, it's time to brown the sausage.  Yep, in the same pan.  Try to break it up some and toss it in there.  Stirring from time to time.

See, no burn on the onions.

Of course you can use homemade or canned broth, but you know I delight in the broth packets from Trader Joe's that make life a walk in the park.

This is a two cup measurer with two packets,
then I filled up half way and added one after.

Camera pans back over to the pan to see how it's all doing.  Looks done to me.  All cooked, slightly seared on each individual piece.  Good to go!

Three ingredients in, just a few more to go.

Pour in all the broth, salt and then add the potatoes. 

Yes, that bowl was heavy to hold with one
hand. I need a tripod or an assistant. Or
an assistant with a tripod.

Fresh herbs add such nice flavor and if you use them whole, you can get their woodsy, herbaceous essence without all the little bits.  So I threw in the thyme sprigs and then will take them out later. 

For some reason, I feel so French country cool
when I add in fresh herbs instead of dried ones.
I should put on an Edith Piaf CD.

I thought about this a lot before I made this decision.  I did NOT add the last two ingredients at this time.  So I'll say that I'm not sure what it would be like if you did it any other way.  I found this method gave me the results I wanted and that was good enough for me. Why did I do it this way?  Because I didn't want them to fall apart into unrecognizable nothingness.

I brought the pan up to a boil, turned it down to a simmer and covered it.  I left it that way for 15 minutes or until the potatoes were soft.  I'm sure the soup would have been just fine at this point by only adding the kale, but I just had a fierce, internally driven passion to add... beans.  Chef's intuition?  Probably not.  Because I'm not a chef.  I work on a laptop for nine hours of the day and then go home and work on a laptop some more.  I'll choose to go with, "I just felt like it, so there."

Drained and rinsed. Like how I feel when I
take a shower after a run on a hot day.

It's become a game to me to try and take good "action" shots.  This moment is no exception.  Okay, jump in beans!

In you go little legumes.

Kale is the last to go in.  The moment has arrived.

Seems like that big bowl of kale won't fit...

... but it does.

Cover again and cook for another five minutes, giving it an occasional stir. Kale wilts quickly.  After you lift off the lid, take out the sprigs of thyme, and wow, this is what you have!  A cookbook quality bowl of steamy, fall-inspired soup.  Mmm, mmm and more mmm.


You will need a big spoon. So you can get a little
bit of everything in each and every bite.

My avocado colored bowls were a perfect match.  They sit up on a slight pedestal bottom and seemed very European.  This is no time for wimpy, small bowls that only hold like three spoonfuls of this delicious, comforting soup.  I really enjoy the creamyness of the potatoes and beans, matched with the flavor of the sausage and the delicate greens.  It really is some kind of beautiful harmony going on here.


Symphony in a bowl.

(Said with a Brooklyn accent.)  As for freezin' anythin' wit potatahs, yeah Mikey, I've heard tings.  Youse guys heard tings?

This is a test, this is only a test.  I've heard not to expect great things when you freeze cooked potatoes that are in soup.  Like, they just can't hold up their shape at all and they fall apart when you reheat.  Well, I am always willing to take the chance and find out for myself, so I froze some.

Left over Chinese take out containers work
super well for left over soup.

I have not unfrozen it yet to see what actually happens, but I'll say this: If the potatoes fall apart and get lost in the soup, I'll just change the name to Creamy Kale, Sausage & Bean Soup. See, no problem. It's worth a shot. Winter is a comin'...

(Side note: Yeah, it's after midnight.  Dangit!)