Kale and Leek White Bean Soup

Tags

beans, cooking, easy, healthy, kale, leeks, recipes, vegan, vegetarian

I’ve become kind of obsessed with kale.  Have you read about just how awesome it is??  Whenever I eat it, I feel like I’m getting a slew of bonus points and gold stars that the other kids are missing out on.  Or maybe I’ve been the clueless one all this time?

Either way, it makes me happy because as awesome-packed as it is, it even tastes good!  Talk about an over-achiever.  If I were another veggie, I would roll my eyes even though I’d secretly be jealous…or green with envy?  (boo…)

Anyway, my sister sent this recipe to me a few years ago while I was living in Cleveland.  I made it and loved it, but apparently forgot about it until now.  There’s just something about beans and cumin together that really hits the spot for me.  And how fancy I feel cooking with leeks!  The original recipe has spinach in it, but I had kale on hand which I’d been wanting to use in something…like this!

Anybody have any favorite kale recipes?  So far, I’ve used it in a stir-fry, made chips, and this pasta.  Allll gooooood.

Kale and Leek White Bean Soup
adapted from AllRecipes.com

Since I just cook for myself, I halved the original recipe which was supposed to make 8 servings (1 cup each).  Besides swapping the spinach with kale, I used orzo instead of couscous.  This required me to boil the soup a little longer with the orzo in it.

1 teaspoon olive oil
2 leeks, bulb only, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 (16 ounce) can vegetable broth
1 (16 ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup whole wheat couscous (I used orzo because that’s what I had)
1 cup packed fresh kale, rinsed well with stems removed and roughly chopped
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Saute the leeks and garlic until softened (about 5 minutes).  Pour in the broth, beans, bay leaf, and cumin and bring to a boil.  Add the couscous and turn down the heat to low.  (If you use orzo, keep it boiling until the orzo is al dente…you might need to add some more broth or water.)  Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.  Dump the kale in and stir until wilted, then season with salt and pepper to taste.

A non-hipstamatic visual: It was more of a warm bean/orzo salad than a soup when I had it for leftovers the next day, but still delicious!