I always think that I am a summer girl– until fall happens. I was born and raised in the Midwest and as much as I remember loving fall, I remember that it always went by superrr quickly. Like, we would get a few beautiful weeks and then winter would arrive and linger for what felt like forever. I am thankful to say that in Georgia fall feels like it lasts a whole lot longer– and the trees hold their beautiful colored leaves longer too. I love the anticipation and excitement that this time of year holds– everything from football games to hosting the holidays. With football season and holidays means that we have quite a few guests coming and going during these cooler months. One of my favorite things to do is to feed people, so I find myself cooking and creating more during this time of year. I swear that if feeding others was one of the five love languages it would probably be tied for my number one, right next to words of affirmation (shocking, right?).
Enough rambling about fall, and football and love languages– let’s get down to it: I made this soup recipe up last night standing in my kitchen while blankly staring into my fridge and I am so glad that it happened. I was really craving something warm, comforting, and light. In my opinion, comfort food is usually heavy and leaves me feeling like I don’t want to move after eating it. I had kale that needed to be used and organic beans were on sale last week so I knew I had a pantry full. Luckily, the other ingredients tend to be household staples so it just kind of came together. As with any of my recipes, you can substitute and manipulate to your liking.
WHAT YOU NEED:
- Vegetable Broth (or Chicken, if you prefer)
- Kale
- 1/2 Onion
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Garlic
- Cannellini/White Beans
- Rosemary
- Salt & Pepper
- Parmesan Cheese
- Wild Rice or Quinoa
WHAT TO DO:
- Start by preparing your wild rice/quinoa as directed on the packaging. I chose to go with wild rice for this recipe just because I like the texture and thought that it would look pretty–seriously, lol. The reason that I like to add a grain to my soups is so that it can be a little bit more filling and because it adds nutrients. Truly, you don’t have to add a grain if you don’t want to, but if you choose to, make sure to prepare this prior to starting your soup because cooking the grains is the most time consuming part.
- Wash and dry kale, pull leaves downward to remove them from the center stalk. Set aside.
- Chop onion and garlic, halve tomatoes and add to pan with olive oil. Saute until fragrant.
- Rinse canned beans until all suds disappear (the suds are the preservatives that even organic beans have to make them have a lengthy shelf life– you definitely don’t want to consume the preservatives, so be sure to always rinsed canned goods).
- Add beans and kale to pan with garlic, onion and tomatoes. Saute together until kale cooks down.
- Pour vegetable or chicken broth into pan with dried rosemary, salt and pepper. Allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes (the longer the better).
- **I chose to keep my wild rice separate from my soup because I have learned the hard way in the past that if you combine it all together the grain/noodle, etc will absorb the majority of your broth. When it comes time to serve add the grain to your bowl, top it with soup and a few sprinkles of parmesan cheese and enjoy!
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