Gingered Kale Soup

The kale falafel flopped. Does this sound like the start of a Dr. Seuss story?  Nope, it was the tale of my day yesterday.  I had found a recipe for Baked Sweet Potato Kale Falafel on Diana Dyer's blog,   365 Days of Kale .  I thought it was definitely worth a try, because I love kale and the recipe pureed the ingredients before forming them into patties, so I was hopeful it would work for me. In making them, I made only a half batch so thought the ingredients could be processed in my Magic Bullet.  Nope..too small.  So I moved it to the VitaMix.  Nope. Not enough liquid.  So I moved it to my early 1980's food processor.  Just right.  (Now it sounds like the story of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears!) Then the patties stuck to the parchment paper when they were baking, probably because I omitted the coating of sesame seeds.  So I took them out and tried frying them in coconut oil. That helped the process, but they were ugly at best.  Taste was ok, but not as good as I had hoped.  Oh gads......I still had to clean the Magic Bullet, the VitaMix and the food processor I had used, in addition to the the two pans, and the mixing bowl.  I am sure Diana Dyer's Baked Sweet Potato Kale Falafel's were delicious, and I had done something wrong.   If anyone wants to give them a try, here is the link to her recipe for her Baked Sweet Potato Kale Falafel and let me know how you did. Interestingly, I found myself munching on them today.  I think the day of melding the flavors improved their taste, and they provided a much healthier alternative to munching on the brownies I made for Sam who is coming for dinner tonight.

While I was tasting the kale falafel last night, I commented that I wished I had made a kale soup instead.  So that's what I made for tonight.  It's a combination of several other "green soup" recipes I had done and this one turned out superb.  Pzazz after all!  While many of my "green soups" look similar, the taste differences make each one distinct and keep me coming back for more. 

And yes, kale is still available in Tom's garden!   The photo at the top of this post is of the kale harvested on Monday morning.  Beautiful, isn't it! I like Diana Dyer's description of kale as a terrific cancer "phyter" because it is power-packed with phyto-chemicals that promote general good health and have been linked to cancer reduction.   While I don't think I meet her goal of eating at least 1 - 2 servings daily of foods from this power packed family, I certainly aim for one.  I concur with her that this improves my chances of long-term cancer survivorship and I would like to think that this has helped me live for 14 years since first diagnosed with a 14cm pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor in 1998.  Now that is Poweful Pzazz!!!!

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons coconut oil
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 medium red garnet yam, peeled and cubed
2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
4 cups chopped kale
1 small leek, white part only, thoroughly washed and chopped
2 -3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 - 3 Tablespoons grated ginger
About 1 cup water
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation:
Heat coconut oil in pan and add the chopped onion with the salt.  Cook over low heat, stirring several times, until the onions are nicely caramelized, which takes at least 20 minutes, but is well worth the time.
While the onions are cooking, wash the kale and take any tough stems off, and chop coarsely.  Set aside.  Put the garnet yam and the whole garlic cloves in a soup pot with the vegetable broth, and cook until almost tender. Add the kale, leek, ginger and enough water to cover the contents by about 1".  Simmer until the kale is tender.  Add a few grinds of black pepper.  Puree contents in a VitaMix or blender.  

Nutrition per serving:
Servings per recipe: 3
Serving Size: Generous 1 cup                
Calories: 146
Total Fat: 4 g
Cholesterol: 0  mg
Sodium: 360 mg
Total Carbs: 26 g
Dietary Fiber: 6 g
Protein: 5 g