Kale and roasted vegetable soup
Roasted vegetables make for a full-flavored and healthy soup.
I had 6 cups of homemade vegetable stock frozen. I also had some kale and carrots from my local farmers market. Inspired by a recipe from simplyrecipes.com, I made a really rich, full-flavored soup. Roasting, then pureeing some of the vegetables is a great variation to try. Roasting the vegetables for this soup takes vegetable soup to a new level. I am looking forward to using this basic technique again. I hope you enjoy it.
To make your own vegetable stock, collect clean vegetable scraps in gallon-sized freezer bags. Store in the freezer until you have enough to make stock. Once you have about 2 gallons-worth, combine the frozen veggie scraps with about 3 quarts of water in a large pot, bring to a boil, then simmer for an hour or so. Strain, then freeze the stock if you’re not using it right away.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 3 medium carrots, cut into 1/2-inch slices
- 2 tomatoes cut into wedges, or 1 15-ounce can of no-salt-added tomatoes when tomatoes aren't in season locally
- 1 yellow onion, cut into 6 to 8 wedges
- 6 big cloves of garlic, peeled
- 1/2 butternut squash, peeled and cut into cubes
- 6 cups vegetable stock, homemade if possible
- 1 bunch of kale, stacked, rolled up then thinly sliced
- 1 heaping teaspoon dried thyme or a palm full of fresh thyme sprigs
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained or 1 1/2 cups freshly cooked white beans
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Lightly oil a rimmed baking pan. Arrange the carrots and squash on one end and the onions, garlic, and fresh tomato on the other. Roast until everything is slightly browned, about 30 minutes.
- Scoop the onions, tomatoes, and garlic into a blender. Puree the vegetables briefly.
- In a large stock pot, combine the vegetable puree and vegetable stock and mix briefly. Bring the stock with blended veggies to a simmer.
- Add the kale, thyme, and bay leaf. Cook until the kale is tender, about 10 minutes.
- Add the carrots, squash, and white beans, and simmer for about 5 more minutes. Remove the bay leaf and the thyme sprigs if you used fresh thyme.
- Season to taste and serve hot.
Nutrition information (per serving)
- Calories: 271
- Total fat: 4 g
- Saturated fat: 1 g
- Trans fat: 0 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
- Sodium: 192 mg (without added salt)
- Total carbohydrate: 49 g
- Dietary fiber: 11 g
- Total sugars: 7 g
- Protein: 19 g