Right now, my parents are staying in an apartment while their house is being repaired from the recent fire (more on that in its own post) and cable/internet haven’t been connected yet so we get about 5 different PBS stations and a few other local ones and that’s it. As I was lounging on my air mattress one afternoon, I caught an episode of The Victory Garden and they cooked this soup that sounded really good so I decided to make my own version of it that night.
You can add in sausage or meat or thicken it up and make it more like a chili if you’d like but it’s quite hearty and delicious! I decided to add leeks and white beans.
Basic ingredients:
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
Kale
Collard Greens
Variety of small tomatoes
Stock
Oil
1. Chop garlic and onion and saute in oil:
2. Wash (first run) green veggies. There will be a lot of dirt on it all so you’ll want to wash them a few times.
3. Cut greens and leeks into large pieces and wash again. I filled my salad spinner with cold water and let the veggies just soak after rinsing them through the colander a few times.
4. I carefully removed the colander from the water – there’s LOTS of dirt still in that water, even after rinsing several times. Those greens hold in a lot of dirt!
5. I wilted greens and leeks in the pot with the onions and garlic (oops forgot to take a picture) then added the broth and white beans (drained) and let it all simmer.
6. While that was simmering, I cut a few of the larger tomatoes. Aren’t they beautiful? They’re delicious, too!
7. When everything was nice and warm, I added the tomatoes and gave it a minute or two to heat them up as well.
8. Final product!
It was really good. I didn’t add any spices or seasonings (not even salt or pepper) and it was just perfect! That’s the nice thing about cooking with high quality, fresh products – they all have their own distinct flavors that don’t need a lot of other spices. Enjoy!
Love you, mean it!
~C
