A sweet, fragrant and hearty soup to warm your taste buds, and your bones, on a cold, wintry day.
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As a stylist, I like mixing things up and keeping them visually interesting.
*No, there are no butterflies in the soup.
Yes, I know butterflies aren’t around in my part of the world in January.
I have had the beautiful remains of this butterfly since the summer, waiting to frame it in a shadow box -pins and all.
Back to the soup:
Keep it brothy, or, blend some of it up for a thicker consistency. Either way, the flavors do satisfy.
Don’t skimp on the sausage. The first time around, I only added half of the called for amount – you know, because we’re cutting back on our meat consumption, a little – but, don’t do this. The soup demands the sweet, or spicy, brown bits from the sausage to add depth and richness to this soup. Otherwise, make a different soup.
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Sausage Potato Leek Kale Soup
(adapted from The Candid Appetite)
Yield: 6-8 servings
Ingredients
- 1 pound spicy or sweet italian sausage, not in a casing (I used sweet sausage)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 leeks (white parts) halved and chopped into half moons
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- healthy pinch of kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
- 2 large bunches of kale, stemmed and chopped into bite size pieces, about 4 overflowing handfuls
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 4 medium or 2 large russet baking potatoes, roughly chopped
- 1 1/2 boxes of organic chicken stock, no salt
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
Directions
1. Heat a large heavy-duty pot, like a dutch oven, over medium-high heat. Once the pot has heated through, add the sausage, cook and break up using a wooden spoon, until it has fully browned.
Remove the crisped sausage from the pot and transfer it to a plate or bowl. Set aside.
2. Lower the heat to medium, add the butter and melt.
Add in the onion, leek and garlic.
Stir, scraping down the bottom of the pot picking up the browned bits of sausage with the back of a wooden spoon, and cook until soft and translucent about 3 to 5 minutes.
Season with salt, and crushed red pepper flakes, if using.
Continue to sauté until the onions have caramelized.
Add the chopped kale – in 2 batches – set it on top of the cooked onion/leek/garlic, sprinkle with half of the nutmeg (per batch.)
Cover the pot with the lid, and allow the kale it to wilt down as it cooks. *Don’t mix it with the cooked onion/leek/garlic, as you will be removing it from the pot and setting it aside.
Cook until it is a bright green and a little wilted – about 5 minutes.
At this point, remove most of the kale from the pot (leaving a little behind) and set aside.
Repeat with the second batch of kale. Then, add in the sliced potatoes and cooked sausage.
*The original recipe calls for cooking the kale in with the onions and garlic, and leaving it in the soup. I followed those steps the first time making this recipe, but I’m not fond of overcooked kale. Thus, the second time, I used the above method, instead, to keep the kale a better color and consistency. Your choice.
3. Pour in the chicken stock or broth and bring it up to a just below a boil. Lower the heat and allow the soup to simmer until the potatoes are cooked tender and soft.
Taste the soup and adjust the seasonings to taste.
Add the kale back in and cook for another 5-10 minutes, just enough to soften the kale, not gray and rubbery.
Finally, mix in the heavy cream, and serve up in warm bowls.
**Alternately, before adding the heavy cream, use an immersion blender and blend until desired thickness.
Then, finish it off by adding in the heavy cream, and stirring to mix.
