Potato and kale soup with chorizo

Peasant-Style Potato and Kale Soup

Adapted from The Daily Green recipe, now housed on Goodhouskeeping.com.

Ingredients

6 ounces chorizo (about 2 medium-size links)

1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

6 garlic cloves, peeled

8 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks (Yukon golds give a nice flavor)

8 cups chicken broth (or substitute leftover potato cooking water for up to 3 cups worth)

1½ cup well-chopped kale

Method

Slice chorizo links lengthwise, then cross-wise into ½-inch pieces. Drizzle large sauce pan or stockpot with a bit of olive oil. Brown chorizo on both sides, then remove from pan and set aside.

Saute onion in chorizo drippings; you may well need to add more olive oil at this point, depending on how fatty your sausage is.

When onion is tender, add a splash of the broth to deglaze the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Then add remaining broth, garlic and potatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until potatoes are tender, 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove potatoes and garlic from the pan to a large bowl. Smash until nearly mashed potatoes. You’re going for the consistency that’s sort of badly mashed potatoes that you wouldn’t want to serve your Thanksgiving guests. It will give the soup creaminess, but still have some substantial consistency to it. (If you prefer to have some potato chunks still in your soup, just remove about 2/3 of the potatoes to mash; it works well both ways.)

Return potatoes to the pan along with kale. Return to a boil and cook covered for another 30 minutes to fully cook kale. Return chorizo to pan and heat through. Claims to serve 8, and it might come close, because it’s hearty.

Rating: This is the soup I haul out from the freezer in the depths of the Minnesota unpleasantness, when winter is totally kicking my ass. It’s rib-sticking comfort food, and freezing and reheating the soup gives the chorizo a chance to permeate the soup with its flavor.

Note: OK, what’s up with that bit about the potato cooking water? Flavor and substance, that’s what. Whenever I cook a mega batch of potatoes for a family gathering, I save the thickest part of the cooking water and store it in the freezer for later use in soups, particularly those that involve potatoes.