Good for you soup that tastes so good
One of my daughter's godmothers lives in southeastern Massachusetts. Portugese immigrants there brought with them a delicious vegetable soup. The original version of this soup includes a spicy sausage called chorizo (which, for those of you who eat meat, is very good in this soup), but I chose to make a vegan version, which is every bit as tasty and much better for you.
Kale is considered to be a highly nutritious vegetable with powerful antioxidant properties and is anti-inflammatory. It is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and reasonably rich in calcium.
This vegetable, like broccoli and other brassicas, has a lot of sulforaphane (particularly when chopped or minced), a chemical believed to have potent anti-cancer properties.
Madrinha (that's Portuguese for godmother) taught me how to make this soup many years ago. She said the main thing was to use the kale and the chorizo (we are, of course, leaving the meat out)...the other vegetables or beans could be easily altered for variety. Potatoes are a popular addition...some people use sweet potatoes; white beans of any kind or kidney beans; carrots, turnips, parsnips...any of those work well too.
And you have to have good chunks of bread to sop up the soup. Delicious...
Vegan Kale Soup
1 bunch kale, chopped3 onions, chopped
10 mushrooms, sliced
6 cloves garlic, minced
8 cups vegetable stock
red pepper flakes, to taste
1 15-oz can white beans
2 carrots, sliced roughly
freshly ground black pepper.
1 tablespoon thyme
- Put the kale in the stock and simmer about 20 minutes.
- Add the onions, garlic and red pepper flakes and simmer until the kale tender.
- Add thyme, beans and potatoes and simmer another 15 minutes.
