MIXED BEAN AND KALE SOUP

The weather the last few days has been up and down, just when you think you can pack away your winter stuff, it's chilly again. And of course the quickest way to bring on snow has got to be by packing up your winter boots. That's precicely what happened over the Easter weekend. I put away our heavy winter boots on Friday and Saturday night it snowed with a fair amount of accumulation. There is our dog running around the deck confused after all these snow free days. Maybe it was not packing away the boots as much as it was using our BBQ for the first time this year a few days ago. 

Cold weather begs for a warm bowl of soup and what better choice than protein and nurient dense legumes and kale. This one pot, ok really two pot meal because I sauteed onions, garlic and ginger before adding it to my instant pot (electric pressure cooker) was ready in half an hour. 

This tastes even better the next day. So make a pot and maybe the soup can chase away the cold days



SKILL: EASY
SERVES : 3 - 4

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup of bean and barley soup mix soaked for 3 hours (what I used looked like in this picture, you can also mix up your own)
• 1 large onion sliced
• 2 cups of chopped kale
• 2 bay leaves
• 10 - 12 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 2 inch piece of ginger chopped
• 1 vegetable boullion cube
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tsp salt
• lemon juice to taste
• 4 - 5 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 cups water

METHOD

1. Saute onions and ginger to 2 Tbsp of olive oil to a hot pan. Add bay leaves
2. Drain soaking water from the soup mix and add it to the onions and stir
3. Season with pepper, salt, cayenne and add vegetable bouillon cube
4. Add finely chopped kale to the pan and pour in 4 cups of boiling water
5. Transfer to the instant pot if using or reduce the heat, cover and simmer till the barley and beans have been cooked. I have used a pressure cooker as well for two whistles.
6. While the soup is boiling, heat the remaining olive oil in a saute pan; add the chopped garlic and turmeric and fry until slightly dark and fragrant
7. Garnish with fried garlic and add lemon juice to taste