One of my favorite aspects of Fall is the sudden abundance of lush, leafy greens. Collards, Turnip, Mustard, Kale - all the greens you could ever want.
I'm a huge fan of greens, evidence of that here and here.
Anything that can still prove beneficial nutritionally when soaked in bacon and cream is my kind of vegetable.
This is an alternative method of using kale - in the traditional pairing of kale, potatoes, and sausage. I used chorizo in this version, but I wasn't crazy about how it all played together in the bowl. When I make this again (and I will be making this again), I'll use a kielbasa of some sort or maybe some ham.
This soup is full of flavor and, depending on the type of sausage used, delightfully low in both fat and calories while delivering a powerhouse combination of Vitamin A and all sorts of other wonderful nutrients from the kale.
I recommend enjoying this with some nice crusty, buttered bread and a drizzle of sriracha or other hot sauce.
Portuguese Kale and Potato Soup
Yields approximately six 1 ½ cup servings
12 oz sausage of your choosing, cut into bite size pieces (kielbasa, andouille, linguiça
or chorizo are all good)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb. kale, washed, stems removed, and sliced into thin strips
12 oz russet potatoes, scrubbed and diced into 1/2 in pieces
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
In a 5 qt. heavy pot over medium-high heat brown the sausage. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Brown the onion and garlic in the leftover juices and oils, about 7-8 minutes. Season with about 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Add the kale and toss with the onion and garlic. Cook until reduced in volume by about half, around 5 minutes, tossing the kale occasionally to prevent burning. Add the potatoes, the chicken stock and water and bring to a boil. Cover and cook about 15 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through. Stir the sausage back into the soup and heat through. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Nutritional Estimate
This is a nutritional estimate, regard it as such.
Because the majority of the calories in this recipe come from the sausage, I have left it out of the nutritional estimate. The range in calories of different sausages varies so widely that it would be impossible to calculate an average. To calculate the calories with the sausage, simply take the total calories of the sausage used and divide it by 6, then add to the estimate provided.
1 serving = 1 ½ cup soup, not including sausage
86 calories
16 g carbohydrates
0.5 g fat
5.5 g protein
