take that, February

Kale and Smoked Sausage Soup

Feelin' chilly, chickadees?  Find yourself wearing socks to bed and contemplating wearing more than one scarf at a time?  Well, this divine soup will warm you right up.  It's from Martha Stewart (recipe here).  The recipe makes enough for 4 hungry folks, or one chilly single gal with leftovers for the fridge and freezer.  Take those mittens off for a minute and let's get started!

Chop one onion and saute in a deep soup pot for about 10 minutes in 1 tbsp of olive oil on medium heat.

Add two chopped cloves of garlic and as much crushed red pepper as you like (I used about 1/2 teaspoon).

Cook for just a couple of minutes and then add in about 6 cups of chicken broth/stock.  If you're Ina Garten and live in the Haaamptons and have minions to make homemade chicken stock for you, use that.  If not, join me in using the quick boxed stuff.  I meant to buy low-sodium broth.  Using this broth (combined with the chicken sausage that comes later), I didn't need to add salt to this soup at all.

Add in some potatoes (again as many as you like).  I used these adorable teeny taters, but if you're using a larger potato, use 3 large potatoes and cut into bite-sized pieces.

Cover and bring to a boil and then simmer, uncovered, for about fifteen minutes until those spuds are tender.  (Le Creuset did not pay me for this product placement...yet.)

Now take a big bunch of kale.  Kale is one of those "superfoods" that is very good for you.  It also happens to be just about the cheapest fella in the produce section.

 (Apparently Hayden wants some more kale in his life.)

 After rinsing your kale, you want to take those tough stems out.  The easiest way to do this is put your knife against the side of the stem, hold the knife in place, and pull the stem upwards.  Chop roughly.

Now let's get our chicken sausage ready.  Oh, this stuff is good.  You want to buy pre-cooked chicken sausage (it's actually the easiest way to find chicken sausage).  I found this delightful roasted red pepper and asiago chicken sausage and used three links of it.

Half the sausage lengthwise and cut in half moons.  Or half circles.  Or Pacman smiley shapes.

 (Hayden got really excited when the chicken sausage made an appearance!)

Now that the potatoes are tender, give the soup a little whir with an immersion blender until just a bit blended (but still with plenty of potato pieces).  If you don't have one of these contraptions, you can take half of the soup and puree it in a food processor or a blender.  If you don't have either one of those, you can just take a potato masher to it.  If you don't have a potato masher, then honey, get thyself to Target.

Add in the chicken sausage and kale and simmer until the kale is tender, about 10 more minutes.

 Whenever I'm cooking with any kind of green, I always add a little bit of freshly grated nutmeg.  It just wakes up the flavors.

And that's it!  The broth is rich and deeply flavored from the sausage, the potatoes are delightfully creamy and the kale adds a great heartiness.

What a way to beat that February cold snap.

Bon appetit!

Lilrevchef

sensational seasonal soup

Now, doesn't this just look like a big, warming bowl of wonderful?  It's sausage and broccoli soup (what Rachael Ray calls "stoup" as it's somewhere between stew and soup).  My memory of this soup is making it after being completely drenched by the typically chilly Northern Irish rain and my dear friend Andrea and I wolfing it down with big hunks of bread, only stopping eating to murmur "It's soooo good!" every few minutes.  This is not your ordinary out-of-a-can soup.  In fact, it's so special I wanted to make it for my sister and brother-in-law when I was visiting them last week as a little celebration of their 7th wedding anniversary.  So, whether you're feeling chilly (which in Texas, I'm not really) or wanting to celebrate an anniversary or an ordinary Friday, I highly recommend this big pot of love.  This makes a really substantial amount of soup (because I wanted Ash and Clay to have plenty of leftovers).

You'll need some of those divine San Marzano tomatoes.  They do cost about a dollar more than ordinary tomatoes, but as they're a huge part of this soup and have a delightful sweet flavor (instead of the sometimes overly-acidic flavor of other canned tomatoes), it's worth it.  You'll need a 28 ounce can, and don't worry if you can only find whole tomatoes instead of crushed.  They usually only come whole, but are easy to break up with a wooden spoon in the soup.

 Take three cloves of garlic, finely mince them and also finely chop one medium onion.

Brown 3 links of sweet Italian sausage and 3 links of hot Italian sausage (taken out of the casings) in a little bit of olive oil.  You'll want to use a wooden spoon to break up the sausage as it cooks.  As I don't think terms "rare" and "sausage" go very well together, I cooked it well, about 15 minutes on medium-high heat.  About halfway through cooking, add the chopped onions.  In the last 5 minutes or so, add the garlic, too.

Add about 1/8 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg (it adds amazing depth to this soup).

Then add in those sublime San Marzanos and use that handy wooden spoon to break them up.

 Get your broccoli ready.  Rachael's recipe uses broccoli rabe (which you have to blanch first to get rid of bitterness), but when I've made this I just use broccolini.  You may be thinking that's a typo, but that extra syllable's on purpose!  Broccolini is sometimes called baby broccoli or Tenderstem broccoli, and it has delicate little florets and stalks that are tender and yummy, too. Trim the broccolini into bite-sized pieces.

Now, we need to get a bit more liquid in that delicious pot.  Add in one container or chicken stock (about 4 cups).  I use boxed stock because making my own stock just seems like a lot of trouble.  

 Also add in about 2 cups of water.

This fabulous soup has pasta in it too (go ahead, do a little happy dance).  I used this campanelle pasta, because it's just so gosh-darn cute.

 Adorable, right?

Once that sumptuous soup is simmering...

 ...add in the broccolini...

 ...and the pasta.  Also add in one can of cannellini or great northern beans.  They add a Tuscan creaminess to the soup.  Let it cook until both the broccolini and pasta are al dente (about 6 minutes or so).

While that was cooking, I made some garlic bread Ina Garten style.  Ciabatta bread is best for this.

Finely chop together three cloves of garlic and 1/4 cup of parsley.  You could use a  food processor but I used an antiquated contraption called a knife. Season it with a little salt and pepper.  Heat 1/2 cup olive oil in a small saute pan and add this mixture, then turn off the heat.  Cut the bread in half and spread one side with 2 tablespoons of butter and brush the other side with the garlic herb oil.  Wrap in foil and bake at 350ºF/176ºC for ten minutes, opening the top of the foil halfway through.  Yum, herby, garlicky.  YUM.

Once the pasta and broccolini are done, add a bit of parmesan cheese (1/4 cup or so).

 Your heart just skipped a beat, didn't it?  So decadent and hearty.

Top each bowl with a little more parmesan, grab some of that herby crusty bread and enjoy this earthy, hearty bowl of joy.

Bon appetit!
lilrevchef