Quick Kale Soup for the last days of winter

Quick Kale Soup

servings 2

2 T olive oil

1/4 sweet onion, diced

3 small garlic cloves

one bunch of kale

about 7 asparagus stalks

1 T white wine

1 cup broth

3 cups water

3 T red mahtjang (miso) sauce

1 t sesame oil

1 T soy sauce

1/4 t salt

1. Prep all vegetables first.  Chop onions, peel garlic, rinse and chop kale, rinse and snap asparagus. 

2. Warm oil in pot.  Add onions and sauté 3-4 minutes, until golden brown.  Crush in garlic and cook for 30 seconds.   Add kale and tossed to get all leaves lightly coated with oil.

3. Splash in white wine and cook for 1 minute.  Then add in all liquids.  Stir gently.

4.  Add in remaining ingredients, stir again, lower heat so that the soup is at a light simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes.

5.  Enjoy!

Time To Slow Down Time

With autumn in full bloom, per se, changes are in the air. Trees are slowing down and leaves are turning brilliant colors.  Cool mornings arrive with a moist feel. Evenings grow cooler as the sun sets. Busy, too, with our lives now that a school year has started, a harvest time in full swing. This is the perfect time to stop and smell the roses; slow time down.

And, when it comes to preparing whole foods for our families, there is a way to slow things down and be efficient at the same time. It is called a slow cooker! Here is how simple and delicious it can be:

Curried Chicken and Veggies
serves 4

4 pieces of chicken on bone (legs and thighs)
2 sweet potatoes, diced
3/4 cup of lentils
1 cup baby carrots
1 small onion, chopped
1 bunch of kale, chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, pressed
2 T olive oil
1 T curry
2 t cumin
1/2 t turmeric
1/4 t ginger
S&P
2 t vegetable bouillon
3 c water

Add everything to slow cooker. Mix so that everything is coated. Cook on low for 8 hours.
Serve over brown rice or serve with crusty bread.

A simple, nutritious, and delicious whole food meal. 

Quick Kale Soup

SCROLL DOWN FOR RECIPE OR ENJOY A PAGE OUT OF THIS STORY…..

Mid October was when she started dressing in layers.  The entrance of cold somehow bit her at the core and she was already striving for warmth even before the winter approached.  Having cleaned up and dressed in comfort, she decided to brew up a warm soup for her midday sustenance.  The kale had now been sitting in the refrigerator for over 2 weeks.  She couldn't bring herself to dispose of it. So precious in nutrients, born of the land, the kale must be eaten.

And that was that.  Into the kitchen she found herself preparing the raw vegetables that would encompass her soup di giorno (or du jour); Italian or French, whatever suits your fancy.  She started with dicing the onion just a quarter of a Vidalia and let that begin to sauté in some olive oil as she quickly washed the kale, massaged it, drained it and chopped it.  Next, 3 cloves of garlic were peeled for the press.  A last minute addition came as she opened the fridge and searched for any hot ideas: asparagus (out of season but something she was drawn to at the store- a longing).  

Into the onions after 3 minutes by themselves, she added the garlic and stirred.  Garlic is delicate and therefore she would only sauté it for 30 seconds.  The kale was ready and dumped in with enough oil from the beginning to cover the greens gently.  She tossed the vegetable mixture together then added a splash of Pinot Grigio and listened to the sizzle.  About a minute later the liquids were added with one part broth and three parts water.  Her friend had given her some Korean red mahtjang sauce (it is miso with Korean red pepper), which she added a few large spoons of and stirred into the liquidly, vegetable mixture.  She topped it off with a shake of sesame oil, soy sauce and a few dashes of salt.  There.  Lunch.  Yum she thought, although as she leaned over the bubbling brew to get a whiff, the scent was not enticing nor promising as it only smelled of raw kale.

At home in the kitchen, her easel, her medium, her art - she lowered the heat down to a light simmer, stirring once more and then covered.  She walked away with a sense that everything would come together in time.  And she was actually a little excited to see how it came out.  She let it cooked for 20 minutes.  

What she made was a masterpiece.

The smell had morphed into a deliciousness she couldn't explain.  The asparagus was tender and the kale was enlivened.  The golden brown sautéed onions added a sweetness to the taste.

Another lovely afternoon of caring for herself, practicing her art and making a concoction that was healthy and pleasant, extremely pleasant, to her palette. 

Quick Kale Soup

servings 2

2 T olive oil

1/4 sweet onion, diced

3 small garlic cloves

one bunch of kale

about 7 asparagus stalks

1 T white wine

1 cup broth

3 cups water

3 T red mahtjang (miso) sauce

1 t sesame oil

1 T soy sauce

1/4 t salt

1. Prep all vegetables first.  Chop onions, peel garlic, rinse and chop kale, rinse and snap asparagus. 

2. Warm oil in pot.  Add onions and sauté 3-4 minutes, until golden brown.  Crush in garlic and cook for 30 seconds.   Add kale and tossed to get all leaves lightly coated with oil.

3. Splash in white wine and cook for 1 minute.  Then add in all liquids.  Stir gently.

4.  Add in remaining ingredients, stir again, lower heat so that the soup is at a light simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes.

5.  Enjoy!

Honey Tofu Stir Fry

With summer on the way, vegetables will become more local and present.  CSA pickups will be loaded with lettuces, spinach, bok choy and and more.  But to get my family to eat these nutritious leafy greens, I have to add a hint of sweetness to the meal.  That’s why I decided to sneak a little honey into my family’s dinner diet.

Honey is a sweet food given to this earth by bees.  Honey bees produce honey through a process of regurgitation and evaporation.  The bees leave their hives in search of flower nectar and sweet deposits from plants and trees.  They gather, modify, and store the nectar they collect in the honeycomb.  As a collective the bees return to their hives and pass the nectar onto the worker bees.   The worker bees, after chewing the nectar to continue to break down the enzymes, eventually spread the nectar throughout the honeycombs.  This is where the evaporation happens and the nectar, over time, becomes a thick syrup.

Local honey is something everyone should incorporate into their diet.  Because bees in your area are collecting nectar that contains the pollen you are ingesting, your local honey is a natural way for your body to develop an immunity to the pollen and its allergens. 

With nature’s treat in mind and the abundance of veggies, I made a tofu stir fry sweetened with a honey sauce.  This dish is a real crowd pleaser and jam-packed with nutritional goodness.

Tofu Stir Fry w/ Honey Soy Sauce                                                                       serves 5 as main meal

INGREDIENTS   

2 T. olive oil (or sesame)                                                         ¼ t. turmeric

½ onion, sliced thinly                                                               ¾ t. ginger

½ red pepper, 1 inch strips                                                      3 T. HONEY

3 carrots, 1 inch strips                                                             1 head baby bok choy, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced                                                           ½ lb. spinach leaves, chopped

1 T. rice wine vinegar                                                             1 cup broccoli, steamed, cut

¼ c. soy sauce                                                                       1 lb firm tofu

1/8 c. water                                                                           1 egg, scrambled

¼ t. cumin                                                                             1 package brown rice noodles, boiled 2 min

Instructions for meal creation:

1 – Preheat oven to 350. Cut tofu cube into approx. 8 slices ½ inch wide.  Lay slices in a lightly oiled baking dish and drizzle with soy sauce and honey (in addition to the amounts needed above).  Bake for 30 minutes.

2 – Meanwhile, use this time to do your prep work by preparing all of the vegetables.

3 – Scramble egg.  Put to side.

4 – Cook noodles.  Drain and toss with sesame oil.

5 – Begin meal completion.  Heat vegetable oil in large wok.  Start with sautéing onions, carrots, red peppers, and garlic.   Add rice vinegar, soy sauce and a bit of water. Toss well.

6 – Add honey, and veggies making sure to mix stir fry well.

7- Cut tofu into small cubes and add to stir fry.  Mix in scrambled eggs and noodles.  Coat all ingredients well.

8 – Serve and enjoy.

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**Visit the National Honey Board for more information on honey

http://www.honey.com/

A Kale Affair to Remember

Have I told this story before?  The one about how I hated kale.  How kale and I had such adverse reactions that we couldn’t even try to form a relationship?  How the EAT MORE KALE bumper stickers actually made me cringe?  I smile to myself just thinking about that time from my -not so distant past-. Kale is dated back to the Middle Ages when it was the most eaten vegetable in Europe. Why then, had I felt so estranged and even turned off by it?

Kale was a big deal in Vermont while we were living there.  I had a nutritional educationalist come speak to my high school class one day.  She had them make kale smoothies.  I never heard the end of it.  Those teens were more than disappointed in their green shakes over something more common to a high school cooking class, like popcorn balls or no bake cookies.  But alas, my role as an educator was to facilitate their experiences (Oh but I wasn't in class that day; not interested in a kale smoothie).

I lived with my sister for a while and she used kale.  And it so seem so foreign and strange.  She made kale chips and I wouldn't even try them.  Imagine the role model I was for my daughter…

Then we returned to New Jersey, state of our upbringing, and I started working on farms to connect to the nature piece I need in my life.  While gleaning for Rolling Harvest Food Rescue, http://www.rollingharvest.org/, the founder and executive director, Cathy Snyder, encouraged me to end my hate with kale!  She challenged me to eat the baby kale we were picking at Gravity Hill Farm http://www.gravityhillfarm.com/ - RAW.  

You know, it was a beautiful summer day, the sun shining so bright and strong (we often needed water and rescue in the shade).  But the big beautiful sky was blue and we were all on a high with the idea of collecting free, organic, expensive vegetables, for people in need.  So I just did it.  While harvesting, I just ripped a kale leaf off, pushed it in  my mouth with all five fingers, and began to chew.  Then another leaf, and another leaf.  I was shocked.  For a split second, an out of body experience had me peering down on myself with a crooked eye, wondering when the hell did I turn into a glutinous kale eater! But then I returned to the moment and chewing and tasting and swallowing and bring another and chewing and tasting and swallowing and all throughout the matnra - enjoying. It tasted amazing, so tender. Why had I been so scared?

My relationship with kale was headed in a whole new direction.  I didn’t know it at the time.  My mom signed up for the CSA at Sandbrook Meadow Farm http://www.sandbrookmeadowfarm.com/.  And wouldn’t you know it but kale was one of our first arrivals.  I was leery about how kale would be used and let my mom take it with her share, leaving me and kale apart. 

OK so fast forward, mom’s making the kale, she’s making a soup, She’s saving me a portion.  Oh my Universe!  I love it.  I want it.  Next time we go to the CSA I ask mom to take 2 bunches of kale.  “Do you want to take one home?”, she asks me.  “No, no, no,” I am clear as I back away from the giant leafy green in front of me.  “But make me that soup please.”  Some might call this ‘The Tipping Point’.

From then on, kale is a part of my weekly diet.  I love it.  I cook it.  My family now loves it too.

Enjoy your Fall Equinox.  Make Kale and Sweet Potato Soup!  I did with all plants from either my backyard garden or the CSA farm.  100% organic and local.

                            

Kale and Sweet Potato Soup                                                                        serves 4 as main meal

INGREDIENTS         

                          

1 med onion, diced                                                               12oz diced tomatoes

6 cloves of garlic, whole                                                       2 cups broth

¼ cup olive oil                                                                      2 cups water

1 bunch of kale                                                                     3 sweet potatoes diced

2 t salt                                                                                  1 can pinto beans (or Northern Italian beans)

some dashes of black pepper

2 T fresh basil                                                                                    

2 t. dried parsley                                                                             

Instructions for meal creation:

1 – Prep work: dice onions, peel garlic, wash and massage kale, then cut into 2 inch strips.

2 – Heat oil medium.  Add onions first for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Press garlic in using a garlic press and stir it constant, as to not let the garlic burn.

3 – Add kale and basil and make sure they get mixed well with oil.  Then add in tomatoes and liquids.

4 – Cook for 5 minutes.  Once it is to a boil, add sweet potatoes.  Simmer on low for 30 minutes.

5 – As the soup cooks, taste it for seasoning.  Adjust seasoning as needed.

6 – Add pinto beans.

7- Mix in scrambled eggs and noodles.  Coat all ingredients well.

8 – Serve and enjoy.

Who Knew?

What's New and Beneficial About Kale

• Kale can provide you with some special cholesterol-lowering benefits if you will cook it by steaming. The fiber-related components in kale do a better job of binding together with bile acids in your digestive tract when they've been steamed. When this binding process takes place, it's easier for bile acids to be excreted, and the result is a lowering of your cholesterol levels. Raw kale still has cholesterol-lowering ability—just not as much.
• Kale's risk-lowering benefits for cancer have recently been extended to at least five different types of cancer. These types include cancer of the bladder, breast, colon, ovary, and prostate. Isothiocyanates (ITCs) made from glucosinolates in kale play a primary role in achieving these risk-lowering benefits.
• Kale is now recognized as providing comprehensive support for the body's detoxification system. New research has shown that the ITCs made from kale's glucosinolates can help regulate detox at a genetic level.
• Researchers can now identify over 45 different flavonoids in kale. With kaempferol and quercetin heading the list, kale's flavonoids combine both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits in way that gives kale a leading dietary role with respect to avoidance of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=38