My DH and I love kale in soup. His favorite is sausage & kale but I have added it to both vegetable soup and chicken noodle. I don't do anything to it except wash, remove stems, chop a little and throw it in. Very good for you!

I use it in Thai red curry chicken soup all the time.

Kale and chicken soup is just about one of my favorites. Delicious, healthy and gluten free! Here's my recipe:

Kale and Chicken Stew

Serves 6-8
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
5 medium mixed potatoes; diced (I used Yukon gold, red and purple)
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
4 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt
freshly cracked black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion; chopped
1 large shallot; minced
2 carrots; peeled and diced
6 cups chicken stock
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese; finely grated
5 cups chopped kale
15-ounce can cannellini beans; drained
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan. Rub with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. In a separate sheet pan, toss the potatoes with olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the potatoes are tender. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred the meat. Cover and set aside.

Warm the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and shallot and sauté, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the carrots and cook 15 minutes until softened. Add in chicken stock, thyme, chicken, potatoes, Parmesan, salt and pepper bring to a simmer. Add the kale and beans and simmer for another 20 minutes, until the kale is tender and the beans are hot.

Note: I add celery cause I like it, and I don't roast anything, just do it as a soup.

Thanks for your quick replies. The kale is going in my soup!

lpinkmountain, your recipe sounds delicious! I don't generally add potatoes to my soup unless it's a chowder, but I'm tempted to try that recipe. Thank you for posting.

I also use kale in many of my soups; it's never the least bit bitter.

This is a simple "emergency" soup recipe (due to the canned foods). I love to make it when I need to rotate some canned foods in our home food storage, but it's also a favorite soup recipe. I think the addition of potatoes and cannellini beans goes well with kale.

I also dehydrate extra kale and store it in a canning jar and add it to all kinds of things from soup to smoothies, or any recipe I might use dried parsley.

KALE SOUP

Cook 1/4-1/2 onion, chopped, in oil, until softened. Add 1/2 head of chopped kale (without ribs) and sauté 2-3 minutes.

Add:
1 can chicken broth + 1 can of water (or equal amount of homemade chicken broth)
1 can cannellini beans (drained)
1/2 can tomatoes (fresh, frozen, or rehydrated dried tomatoes will also work)
2 potatoes, peeled & cubed
Italian seasoning - to taste
salt and pepper - to taste
Simmer 25-30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

-Grainlady

I don't normally use potatoes in soup either but kale and potato is a wonderful flavor combo. You could leave it out and sub carrots or something else but the soup would not be as yummy, IMHO. It's the starchiness of the potato that makes it. I also do kale and cannellini beans and Italian sausage very often.

A note about the bitterness of kale: I'm more sensitive to it than many people I know. The trick, for me, for an ordinary chicken soup, rather than something highly flavored, is to put the kale in just a few minutes before serving, so it's well wilted but hasn't started dissolving into the soup. I don't like it when the chicken broth tastes like kale, but it's good with the kale swimming in it with the other vegetables (definitely better with carrot and/or potato chunks to be sweet against the bitterness of the kale).

I usually steam the kale a bit until it wilts before putting it in soup.

Another green that's good in chicken stock is escarole. Cook it until wilted in the stock, add some parmesan on top; simple and delicious.

Modify grainladies recipe slightly and you have Portuguese Kale Soup, which is popular here is Southern New England. Omit the tomatoes and add linguica, chorizo or other spicy sausage.

Arley's suggested chicken and escarole is a favorite of mine.

Jim

Dupe

Jim

This post was edited by jimster on Mon, Oct 6, 14 at 18:53

Dupe

Big fan here of Portuguese Kale Soup. I'm making it tomorrow as we've had a hard frost and the kale is sweetened by it. It's one of my favorite fall foods.

My husband was over the moon for the soup last night! I did roast the potatoes and I think it helped keep them from getting mushy, which is the texture issue I had about potatoes in a non-creamy soup. I also braised the kale before adding & only used the leafy portion. With the sautéed onion, carrots and the rich stock & meat from my roast chicken it was a meal to remember. More stew than soup.

Thanks, again to all who nudged me to try the kale!

Getting slightly off topic here, but if you're ever at a Cuban restaurant, see if they have Caldo Gallego. It's a greens-in-meat-broth soup with lots of other good stuff like white beans and sausage. The greens are collards, which are very similar to kale.

Yes, there is something amazingly comforting about that soup!