Kale week: Kale and roasted vegetable soup

Kale and Roasted Vegetable Soup

I got the original version of this recipe off the website of the Midtown Farmers Market in 2009. They didn’t credit the source, so I can’t for certain either, although I see that Simply Recipes posted the same one at least a year earlier, so possibly that’s where credit is due. At any rate, it’s become my favorite meatless kale soup. It's hearty enough to make a meatless main dish.

Ingredients

3 medium carrots, peeled and halved lengthwise

2 large tomatoes, quartered

1 large onion, cut into 8 wedges

½ small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut crosswise into ½-thick wedges

6 peeled garlic cloves

1 tablespoon olive oil

5 to 6 cups broth

3 to 4 cups well-chopped kale, depending on how much you like

3 large sprigs fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

1 15-ounce can Great Northern beans or other largish, whitish beans

Method

Brush roasting pan with a bit of olive oil. Arrange carrots, squash, onions and tomatoes on pan. Tuck garlic cloves down into the crevices so they roast without getting dried out. Drizzle with more olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Roast for about 40 minutes at 400 until veggies are tender and brown.

Remove from oven. Once cool enough to handle, cut carrots and squash into ½-inch chunks. Set aside. Put onion, tomato and garlic in a food processor and puree until almost smooth. (I sometimes add a wedge or two of the squash; it makes for a creamier soup.)

(Note: The pureed mixture, with or without the added chunks of carrots and squash, also makes a great pasta sauce, so if I'm just trying to use up squash and tail-end tomatoes in the fall, I stop here and put it into packages to freeze for later use. But since I've got kale aplenty... )

Deglaze the roasting pan with a bit of the broth. Pour into a large stock pot along with pureed mixture, 5 cups of broth, kale, thyme and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer uncovered until kale is tender, at least 30 minutes. Taste it to see if that raw kale taste has given way to something richer.

Add beans and reserved carrots and squash. Cook until heated through. Add more broth if needed to reach desired consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper if needed. Discard herbs. Serves 6 quite generously.

Note: Because this soup is meatless, the quality of the broth matters even more than usual, so if you can’t opt for homemade, at least spring for a higher quality of stock for this one.

Make-ahead tips: Like most soups, this benefits from being made at least a day ahead so the flavors can truly blend, although it's tasty enough when it's first done. I've also made the roasted veggie part a day or two ahead, and I generally chop my kale up in big batches and portion it out as needed over a week of kale-soup binge making. It freezes well, so I put up two-serving portions in plastic containers, label them and then thaw a day or two ahead of time in the refrigerator.

I usually make a double batch of this soup, which takes a very large pot indeed. I make mine in a Le Creuset No. 30.