White Bean, Kale, and Sausage Soup

How To Have A Big Bowl of White Bean, Kale, and Sausage Soup A Few Days From Now

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Here’s What You’ll Need:

1 pound of dried cannellini white beans

a bit of olive oil

uncooked spicy or mild sausage – about 2 links of sausage (about half a pound)

a yellow onion

a few cloves of garlic

a green bell pepper – half of the pepper diced for the recipe, the other half sliced for snacking

6 to 8 cups chicken stock

salt and pepper – a bay leaf if you’re feelin’ it

8 to 10 good clean lacitano kale leaves, ribs removed and coarsely chopped

1 (15 ounce) can white cannellini beans

We’ll start by soaking the beans.  They’re dried.  They need a bit of attention and time alone before they hit the pot.

Place the dried beans in a big ol’ bowl and cover them by several inches with warm water.  You’ll think nothing is happening.  They’ll wrinkle and look curious.  The’ll plump as the start to absorb the water around them.  Let the beans be – overnight is best.

Once the beans have had their time, it’s your time to make soup! Hopefully it’s mid afternoon and you have a free hour to yourself.  Maybe your love is perched on a stool talking about what you’ll both binge watch later.  Either way, pour yourself a cup of tea or an early glass of wine and savor what you get to do in the kitchen for the next bit.

Chop an onion.  Small to medium dices.  You’ll want about a cup of diced onion total.  Scraps and skin and ends – save them for stock

Mince the garlic.

Chop the bell pepper so you have about half a cup for the soup.  Eat the rest, reminding yourself that you like bell pepper.

Where’s your large soup pot?  The pot you always make soup in?  Place it on the stove over medium heat. Add a glug of oil along with the sausage.  Cook it up.  Break it up.  Crank the heat to get a good crisp on the meat as it cooks through.  Spoon the meat into a small bowl.

Yup.

Do you want to drain some of the fat?  You can if you’d like.  Leave some in the pan.  Add the onions and garlic and bell pepper.  Season with a sprinkle of salt and pepper.  Allow to cook down until the onions are translucent, the garlic is fragrant and the peppers have softened.

Add the sausage back to the pan.

Drain the beans and add the beans to the pot, too.

Chicken stock too.  Now we’re cookin’ with gas. (I mean… probably.  It’s mostly an expression.)

Bring the mixture to a boil.  Reduce the heat to the lowest simmer.  Cover the pot and cook until beans are softened.  This might take half an hour of so.  Plenty of time for a glass of wine in the shower if you’re into that sort of thing.  Before you walk away from the stove, give the pot a few watchful minutes to ensure that the simmering mixture doesn’t boil over.  Every stovetop and pot is different.

Simmer until beans are soft.  You’ll know when the time is right.

Now… in a blender, empty the can of beans – liquid and all.

Ladle in a few scoopfuls of the warm soup – beans and broth.  Blend until the mixture is smooth and stir it into the simmering soup!  Look how creamy that got!  Well done well done!

Add the chopped kale. It will wilt willingly.  Taste.  Does it need more salt and pepper?  Add it.  Stir it up.

Enjoy warm for many days to come.

You did great.