Potato Kale Soup

Kale gotten stale (technically wilty, but I was going for the rhyme)? Taters growing sprouts? Leftover sausage has you scratching your head? You’re covered with this easy, one-pot soup that will warm your belly. It’s delicious, uses up aging ingredients in your pantry begging for some attention, and is HEALTHY!

Being a one-income family, I have learned to stretch our dollar, designate a certain amount each week to groceries/consumables/entertaining etc, and have learned to make more with less. It’s always been sort of a game to me. Even when I worked full time, I would scour the freezer and pantry and put a bunch of “stuff” together and call it a casserole. I never had any complaints, and less food was wasted each month. Our desire as halfway homesteaders, is to make what we can from what we already have, be self-sufficient and resourceful, and waste LESS! Amazingly, you can make elaborate meals with very few ingredients and you do not have to compromise the quality.

My go-to grocer is Aldi. They have just about everything I need, including a fairly large selection of organic foods. I do not always buy everything organic, but I do try to do this when I can. Also, I try to buy the foods that are in season to avoid buying foods that have traveled halfway across the US, sat on a truck for days and aren’t in their “prime.” Kale is the perfect addition to soups, stews and everything in between. We have it on hand for smoothies for the kids as well. Aldi has a delicious bag of chopped kale that has so many uses for our family of four!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 onion, any onion will do! Chop it up!
• 5 tsp olive oil
• 4 tsp minced garlic from a jar (or your own cloves if you’ve got ’em)!
• 2 HUMONGOUS potatoes, or 6 small ones. You can add more or less here depending on how hearty you want your soup, OR depending on how many potatoes you have loitering in your kitchen.
• 8 cups chicken broth. I did add a little powdered chicken boullion here as well for a slightly bolder flavor.
• 2 large handfuls of chopped kale
• 1 package of chicken sausage, Italian sausage, pork sausage or any other sausage you have on hand. I added the Aldi brand chicken sausage when the soup started to boil. You will want to brown any other type of uncooked sausage before adding it to the soup, because, yeah….
• 4 tsp cornstarch
• 1/2 cup cream or milk or any other “like” item you want to mix with the cornstarch to create a creamier soup
• 1/4 tsp dried parsley
• salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Drizzle a soup pot/dutch oven with olive oil. Add chopped onion and minced garlic and saute until tender. Peel and chop potatoes. Add to pot. Cut chicken sausage into rounds and drop into the pot as well. The ones I use are precooked and boiling with the broth is just fine. Any other meat, brown ahead of time and add here too. Fill pot with 8 cups of chicken broth and cover and bring to a boil. Boil potatoes until tender.

Take a potato masher and smash up some of those taters. It creates a creamier texture. Then in a separate bowl, mix together your cornstarch and cream (or milk or whatever you have), until it’s all combined. Add to the soup and continue to stir and simmer until soup thickens. Add parsley, two handfuls of kale and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer on medium for another 15 minutes. YUM! I love serving this as a main dish with a salad and fresh rolls (recipe coming in next blog post).