Tuscan White Bean and Kale Soup

 

Updated 2.12.2019.

If it seems like I haven’t been posting in a while, it’s because I haven’t been. Instead I’ve been out living my life, which must make me sound like a loser who never left her house until February 2014. I swear that’s not true! But I have been eating out more recently and trying to squeeze in work outs more often. Neither of which are conducive to spending lots of time in the kitchen.

I probably won’t be posting for the next few weeks either. I’m attempting a 10-day detox, and unless I find a really delicious recipe for steamed Asparagus, you won’t be hearing from me. Or unless I ditch the detox.

Since I won’t be able to eat most anything that I would normally eat or cook, I did not spend much of this weekend cooking. Instead I went to the Waffle Window for one last hurrah this morning. I did spend the afternoon making a big pot of soup however. It’s been in the high 30’s and raining all day. Days like these make me want to eat soup. Plus I knew that this soup would probably freeze well and I needed to use up a big bag of kale that’s in my fridge (kale is not part of my detox).

ingredients.

• ½ red onion, chopped (yellow onion is fine if you don’t have red)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 oz chopped kale
• 1 c. dried cannelini beans (soaked in water overnight, drained)
• 1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes w/basil, garlic and oregano (can sub 6  to 8 oz tomato paste)
• 4 c. chicken or vegetable stock or broth
• 4 to 6 c. water
• 1 c. orzo or ditalini pasta (or other short cut pasta)
• parmesan rind
• Italian seasoning or oregano or basil, etc., to taste
• salt and pepper, to taste
• freshly shaved parmesan for serving

directions.

1. Place the beans in a medium pot, add water to cover by 2-inches and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium and let simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until just-tender. Reserve one-fourth of the beans.
2. Meanwhile, in a large soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute for 3 to 4 minutes. Add dried oregano or other seasonings at this point, if desired. Add stock or broth and salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste.
3. In a food processor or blender, process the beans (except for what’s reserved) along with some stock mixture until smooth. Add the puree back to the soup pot, along with the reserved beans and can of tomatoes. Add the kale and parmesan rind.
4. Cook until the broth has reduced and thickened a bit, and the kale has wilted and lost its green color. Add the pasta and cook at rolling boil until tender – about 7 minutes. If you can find that parmesan rind, fish it out before serving.
5. Serve immediately with freshly grated parmesan cheese and some peasant bread.

When you add the pasta to the soup, it makes the soup very thick. You can thin it out with some water, stock or broth. I had to thin the soup out even though I love a thick soup.

The second time I made this soup I used a slightly different method. I pureed all of the beans with the broth, onions and garlic. Then I added tomato paste because I didn’t have any diced tomatoes. The soup got rather thick at that point. Then I added some ditalini noodles and cooked them at a rolling boil until they were al dente. Finally I added the kale.

Recipe rating: 