Kale and Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

Gnowfglins, Recipes, Vegan & Vegetarian

3 Comments

24 Mar 2010

If you would have asked me to eat a “root vegetable” last year, I’d have gagged and said no way, even though I had no idea what root vegetables were. Roots? Just sounds bad. It turns out, though, that I really like the root veggies that I’ve tried since going organic! (For the record, the root veggies in question for this recipe are onions, carrots, garlic, and sweet potatoes). Yum!

The “firsts” for me in this vegan-friendly recipe include:

• First time I’ve cooked with or eaten kale
• First time I’ve made beans from dried and not from a can
• First time I’ve made soup from scratch
• First time I’ve worn my new Asics GT 2150 running shoes

OK, so the shoes are probably irrelevant to the recipe, but they sure are comfy! And hopefully, they’ll not cause blisters the way my old gym shoes did.

The recipe below comes from Emily’s blog – The Front Burner. Check out her recap – she takes much better food photos than I do, and explains every step in detail. This soup covers a slew of nutritional bases – it’s a good source of Vitamin B6, Folate and Potassium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K and Manganese. It’s low fat, with no saturated fat and no cholesterol.

On with the cooking!

First, I should explain that I did not use canned beans for this recipe. As part of this week’s homework in the GNOWFGLINS e-course on traditional food preparation, we were to make beans from scratch. I bought some dried navy beans at Whole Foods yesterday, so to prepare for this recipe, I soaked 2/3 cup of dry beans in water with a tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar. I soaked the beans overnight, then this morning, rinsed them and put them in the crock pot to cook on high for an hour then on low for 6 more hours. I added a thumb-sized chunk of kombu (a sea vegetable) to the crock pot during cooking to tenderize the beans and break down some of the sugars in them that tend to make them… gassy. Kombu also imparts some mineral goodness. By the time I was ready to cook dinner, the beans were ready to go.

The next step was to chop up carrots and a sweet potato and stick ‘em in the oven to roast. They didn’t look very exciting so I didn’t take a picture.

Up next: the stranger in my fridge, Kale. (No, not Kato). Here’s what it looked like, fresh from the bunch:

The recipe instructed me to pull the leaves from the stems. I wondered all the while if I was doing it right….

I sure had a lot of kale…. the leaves reminded me of a cross between broccoli and seaweed. (Maybe I just had seaweed on the brain from my recent trip to Whole Foods).

Next I chopped up an onion and minced some garlic and sauteed them for a few minutes before throwing in the roasted carrots and sweet potato.

Then, in went the vegetable broth, and then the kale. The kale was huge and fluffy in the pot! I feared I was messing the whole thing up, but I took Emily’s word for it that the kale would wilt. I covered the pot and let it simmer for 10 minutes. At the 5 minute mark, I was still pretty nervous – the kale was huge! I think I might have had a little too much kale to begin with, so I added 1 cup of water. That helped, because by the end of 10 minutes, I could stir the kale into the mix and it was starting to look like soup.

I added the seasonings and simmered for 5 more minutes (ready to jump out of my new shoes because it smelled SO GOOD!)

When the soup was done, I ladled it into a bowl and topped it with a dollop of homemade guacamole that I had in the fridge. (Emily recommends topping with chunks of avocado). I slathered some Earth Balance spread onto a slice of my homemade sourdough bread, and…

Dinner!

All I can say is… this soup was AWESOME!! So tasty! My first impression of kale: thumbs up! Kale is a form of cabbage, a relative of cauliflower and broccoli. It’s a highly nutritious, dark leafy green, and has good anti-inflammatory properties and is believed to have potent anti-cancer properties as well. In this soup, it tasted mild – almost sweet. It’s a hearty green – good for chewing!

For all of its nutrition, a big ol’ bowl of this soup clocks in around 235 calories. I can’t wait for the leftovers! 100% delish.

Kale and Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

Posted March 25, 2010 by Shelly in Posted In: Soups & Salads

I found this recipe on Emily's blog, The Front Burner. I adapted it based on what I had on hand, and all I have to say is - WOW. This soup is amazing! And pretty easy to throw together, to boot. Vegan and vegetarian friendly :)

Details

• Prep Time:
  45 min
• Cook Time:
  15 min
• Ready In:
  60 min

Ingredients

• 6 large carrots
• 1 large sweet potato
• 1 medium onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 4 cups kale
• 15 ounces navy beans cooked or canned
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon garlic seasoning
• 1/2 avocado
• 1 cup filtered water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Chop carrots and sweet potato into chunks of all about the same size.
3. Place carrot and sweet potato chunks onto a baking sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes.
4. While the veggies are roasting, tear the leaves off of the stems of the kale. Wash thoroughly.
5. Dice the onion and mince the garlic.
6. A few minutes before the veggies are done, add the onion and garlic to a large stock pot and saute over medium heat until onions have browned.
7. Add the roasted veggies to the stock pot.
8. Add the vegetable broth, water, and then the kale.
9. Cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. (The kale will wilt down).
10. Once the kale has wilted a bit, add the beans, cumin, and seasoning.
11. Let simmer uncovered for 5-10 more minutes.
12. Garnish with slices of avocado (or in my case, a dollop of homemade guacamole).

Makes 5 big bowls of soup! Per serving: Approximately 235 calories, 2g fat, 0 cholesterol, 47g carbs, 14g fiber, 8g sugar, 11g protein, ridiculous amounts of Vitamins A and C (more than 100% RDA), 18% Calcium, 21% Iron, and a bunch of other vitamins. Good stuff!

EpicOrganic.net

Posted: March 24, 2010 at 8:59 pm
{Tags: avocado, beans, carrot, kale, onion, roasting, soup, sweet potato}
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