I concur with that. I make really great kale salad, with ripped kale (russian or dinosaur), and tomatoes, and avocadoes. I put salt and pepper and lemon juice on it. I loves me some kale.

Do you have a recipe for the soup? It sounds good.

I prefer collard greens and ham hocks, or mesclun*, spinach or seaweed when it comes to my greens.

*(at a buffet place I once saw it mislabeled as 'mescaline salad.' That would've made for an interesting lunch indeed.)

Mince one garlic clove. Sautee it in 1-2 T olive oil until fragrant. Add a couple cans of drained cannelini (white kidney beans) and a bit of salt and pepper, and cover the pot. Simmer for five minutes. Take the cover off, and use some implement to mash about half the beans (I use a potato masher; recipe actually calls for a food processor). Stir in about a 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth. Simmer uncovered for another five minutes. Add chopped kale and simmer until wilted.

Eat eat eat!

It's a modified Marcella Hazan recipe, actually. She didn't have the kale, but the basic soup's been my favorite bean soup recipe for a long time. So quick! So cheap! So good!

I'm still very excited about kale because I didn't really know it existed until about a year ago. So it's still a very new veggie for me.

I love kale, but also good in cannelini: escarole sauteed in garlic, olive oil, and a spoonful of marinara.

I have deleted several posts here. . .

But white bean-kale soup sounds SO good. . .

I make a mean white bean-garlic soup.

Kale recipe for occhiblu:

2 bunches kale
1/4 cup raisins
several cloves of garlic
feta cheese
toasted pecans **


Soak raisins in about 3/4 cup warm water for 15 minutes or so. Save the water.

Wash the kale really well. Slice it into 1/2" ribbons. No need to dry it.

Saute sliced garlic in olive oil until tender, but not terribly browned. Add a pinch of red pepper flakes. Add kale, saute.

After kale wilts, add raisins and their water. Cover, allow to braise for 10 minutes or so. Remove lid, let liquid cook away. Cook until kale is tender.

Remove from heat, toss in toasted pecans and feta cheese.

Yum.

**Original recipe called for pine nuts, but I always find them rancid-tasting. Plus, I'm a Texas girl. So pecans it is.

I'm finding that a very hard recipe to imagine, mudpuppie. Is it North African-ish? Or just lots of good stuff that also taste good together?

(I'm so Italian- and French-focused that I sometimes get weirded out by cooking with combos like raisins, feta, and dried red pepper. Though I never mind ordering them in restaurants. I'm weird.)

Occhiblu, it's a friend that a friend found in a cookbook 10 or 12 years ago. Ithink it's straight-up mediterranean, but can't really remember.

(Um, it's a recipe that a friend found....)

Darn it. I thought you were good friends with kale. I was gonna ask if you could get me an in.

Brilliant. I need these, because I planted one of those mixed seed packets - mesclun salad greens - in the veg garden and suddenly I have tons and tons of Russian kale & I had no idea what to do with it. Yet again, mecha comes through.

French White Bean and Kale Soup
Use a large 6-quart slow-cooker to hold all the ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup chopped dark green
1 large yukon gold potato, unpeeled and diced
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (or other white beans)
6 cups vegetable stock
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
salt
fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon liquid smoke (optional)
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley leaves



1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add in the onion, carrot, and garlic; cover and cook 5 minutes or until softened.
3. Transfer the cooked vegetables into a 6-quart slow cooker.
4. Add in the kale, potato, beans, stock, and thyme; season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours.
6. Just before serving, stir in the liquid smoke (if using), and parsley; taste to adjust seasonings.

I make basically the same soup as occhiblu except with potato instead of beans (I don't bother to saute the garlic first). It's only really fantastic with homemade broth though, so I don't make it all the time.