Romantic Bouquets

Romantic Bouquets
Valentine's Day is Coming!

Kale and Tomato Soup

-
one of our hand-made wreaths
We've been so busy making wreaths and kissing balls for the Christmas Season. It's been very cold and a bit snowy of late.  A couple days ago, I surprised my husband with a crock pot of minestrone for lunch down at the farm.   He said it really hit the spot with this cold weather and has requested more crock pot goodness!  Today I made Kale and Tomato Soup for him as I wanted to use up some left over kale, which is very sweet and tender this time of year due to the cold weather.  We've been growing kale in the greenhouses all year along with other greens.  This recipe is super easy and really only takes about 15 minutes on the stove, but I elected to saute and then add to the crock pot for obvious reasons already stated.  Of course...it's always great to come home to an already cooked meal in the evening, so our crock pot is always working.  As a matter of fact, I have two of them!

Kale growing in our greenhouse

1 medium/large onion (chopped)
2 bunches kale (washed and torn)
6 over-ripe tomatoes (chopped or pureed)
1 can, 16 oz- cannellini (white kidney) beans
2 cloves fresh garlic or garlic powder to taste
handful of small pasta such as ditalini or small rings
32 oz chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
grated Parmesan cheese

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, saute the garlic and onion until translucent.  Add the kale and saute until wilted.   (Note: at this point, I placed the cooked onion/kale mixture and the remaining ingredients in to the crock pot, but you could complete this on the stove as well).

I coarsely chopped my tomatoes (from our farm's greenhouses....they are still so sweet I just had to add them) in my food processor.  I added everything to the crock pot and simmered all on low for 4 hours.  If completing on the stove-top, it should only take another 8-12 minutes to complete, just until the pasta is al dente.

Season to taste, top with some grated Parmesan cheese and enjoy with some crusty bread!
Happy Holidays!

Comments

  1. Amy at Ms. Toody Goo ShoesDecember 10, 2014 at 8:59 PM

    Such a nice surprise to come across a blog post from you! The soup sounds delish, and easy enough for even me to try! I love kale, so I think I will!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comment! We appreciate them all and will publish your comment shortly. Thanks for visiting!

Popular posts from this blog

Blanching Vegetables

-
Image
One of our customers had asked how to blanch Swiss Chard for a special diet she is on. Blanching is a critical step for all vegetables being stored for more than one month, with one exception: those vegetables being used solely for their flavor, such as green onions, herbs and hot peppers, do not need to be blanched. Blanching is necessary in order to cleanse the produce of any remaining dirt and to kill any microorganisms. It also brightens the color, helps retain vitamins and reduces the action of enzymes that can destroy the fresh flavor of the produce when frozen for longer than the first month. As you can see, blanching is a most important step in freezing vegetables and must be done very carefully, but that does not mean it is difficult to do. On the contrary, it is actually very simple. First, wash, drain and prepare vegetables as you would normally for cooking, such as trimming ends and chopping into the size you would use in your recipes. I would recommend using 1 gal
Read more

Italian Pods of Goodness

-
Image
Romano Beans....Italian  Flat Beans....These beans are flat, broad and string-less and have a bit more flavor than regular green beans.  We grow them on the farm mostly for our family, but lately they've been a big hit at the farmers' markets we attend.  When giving customers a chance to sample, about 90% will pick the Romano bean to purchase over the other.  We've been harvesting them by hand for about two weeks now, and I finally had a chance to fix some for dinner tonight. You can steam or saute them with garlic, or add them to salads if you like.  They are tender and cook quickly when picked at the right stage.  If you are growing them in your own garden, you should harvest them regularly, at least every other day, at about 4 or 5" in length and when the bean seeds inside the pod are just starting to show some definition.  If you let them get too large where the seeds are really bulging, they can be tough. Tonight I sauteed them with garlic and onions and ad
Read more

Have Your Cake....

-
Image
We went to my in-laws' home for Super Bowl Sunday.  It was my job to bring dessert.  After roaming the aisles of the grocery store yesterday and not seeing anything I liked, I decided I was going to attempt to make a cake.  I remembered at home I had a Hershey's Cookbook.  This was no ordinary cookbook.
Read more