January. You know what that means…soup covers!
Soup covers? Umm-hmm…check out the women’s magazines. Practically every one of them sports bowls of steaming soup or chili on the cover this month. Because they KNOW a good many of us porked up over the holidays and want nothing more to do with food. Ever. Except comfort food. There’s always room for comfort food.
And what’s more comforting than soup?
Pause here for flashbacks of the Campbell kids. Rosy cheeks. Runny noses. A bowl of tomato soup with a side of grill cheese and that about sums up my childhood memories of winter. That and the tablespoon of wine Mama always gave us when we came in from the cold. “To warm us up.” We did a lot of running in and out of the house during those days.
Now fast forward to the present. Because this is about the soup I made tonight. My I-can-figure-this-recipe-out kale and white bean soup. I will tell you straight up that it was way better than last week’s supper nightmare. The one I talked about here.
Tonight’s soup was quite nice, actually.
First thing I did was admire an onion. Because I’m an artist and can focus in on almost anything. Which annoys Mr. Spouse to no end.
Just look at that texture. At the way the stem twists. And that round little body all covered in paper thin sheets. Luscious, luscious, luscious, I tell you. The artist in me had brief fantasies of forgetting about dinner. Of running off to the studio and having my way with Onion O’Mine and some charcoal.
But Hungry Girl took a deep breath and chopped it up instead. And then threw the bits in some olive oil and browned ’em. Just like that, without flinching even. Because Hungry Girl isn’t into anthropomorphizing vegetables.
Alas, no fresh garlic. Mine had seen better days and needed to go away. So I used garlic powder. How much? I dunno. Enough to fit in the cup of my palm.
The next step was to add one of those big boxes of chicken broth. This is a work night dinner, no homemade stock tonight, no overnight soaking of beans. I used two cans.
And then the spices. Oh my, thyme or rosemary? A search of the spice rack reminded me I’d used the last of the thyme so it became rosemary by default. Another handful measure. And salt and pepper.
And wine. White.
I let it cook for a bit, enough to soften the rosemary leaves. Then I put a bunch of it in the blender. Umm..note to self…the cover must be on securely before operating the blender. And don’t forget to put the laundry in the dryer before going to bed.
After I mopped the counter and the surrounding floor, I poured the pureed soup back into the pan. Gave it the taste test. Sigh…okay but something was missing.
Sausages! Smokey goodness. Of course!
I chopped them up, thinking all the while about a post I wrote earlier in the month. Don’t click on the link, fellas.
Puppies came running when they heard the kale. Yes, they know the sound of those leaves. They cannot get enough of it. By the way, the bean crusted jacket is in the wash right now.
I threw the kale in the soup, covered it and turned off the heat. Then I fed the horses, went down to the studio and fell asleep with Studio Quat on my lap. About an hour later I came back to the house. The soup was still hot and the flavors had had time to blend together just right.
Parmesan cheese on top, some sourdough bread on the side and dinner was delicious.
I ate two bowls.
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