This creamy kale soup may become your new favorite.
The bacon and sausage give the soup lots of flavor. You can make the soup as mild or as spicy as you like just by adjusting the amount of dried chilies you use. I am not a lover of hot, spicy foods so I would actually leave the chilies out entirely. The soup has lots of flavor without them.
If know most people are spice lovers, so if you are one of them, feel free to add as many chilies as you want. You can also add hot sauce to the finished soup for more heat.
I know there are kale haters out there, but even if kale isn’t your favorite vegetable, the other flavors in this easy soup recipe are real winners. And kale is so healthy, it’s a great vegetable to include in your diet at least once in a while.
If you really can’t tolerate the kale, substitute it with spinach or Swiss chard. I am a real believer in switching up recipes to suit your own taste buds.
I love soups that are a meal in a bowl and this kale soup recipe meets that criteria with sausage, potatoes and vegetables all in the pot. Every soup needs onions of course (in my humble opinion anyway) and I love that this one also adds garlic. It goes so well with all of the other ingredients.
I love homemade soup recipes like this that come together quickly but pack great flavors into one bowl. In less than an hour from start to finish you’ll have a wonderful easy dinner to sit down to.
Just add some great crusty bread and you are ready to enjoy.
Creamy Kale Soup
Ingredients
- 2 slices bacon, diced
- 8 ounces sausage (hot or mild sausage), casings removed & chopped (optional)
- 1 cup onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch , or all purpose flour
- 6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
- 1/4 teaspoon dried chilies, crushed
- 2 medium size potatoes, scrubbed but unpeeled
- 1 cup kale leaves, shredded (lightly packed)
- 1 cup half and half cream or milk
- Parmesan cheese, grated (optional)
Instructions
- In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, cook the bacon on medium until it is almost crisp. Add the loose sausage. Fry for about 5 minutes, breaking it up as you go, until the sausage is browned. Transfer the sausage and bacon to a paper towel lined plate to drain. Set the plate aside.
- Heat the meat drippings in the same saucepan on medium. Add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the onion is softened.
- Sprinkle the onion in the pan with flour. Heat and stir for 1 minute. Add the stock and chilies and stir. Bring the mixture to a boil.
- Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise, then cut them crosswise into 1/4 inch slices or small chunks. Add the potatoes to the stock and boil the mixture gently, partially covered, for 10 minutes until the potatoes are almost tender. Add the shredded kale and the sausage and bacon mixture. Boil the soup gently, partially covered, for 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in the cream. Taste and adjust seasonings by adding salt and pepper if needed.
- Garnish individual servings with Parmesan cheese if you would like.
Nutrition
Serves 6
Make it a Vegetarian Kale Soup:
It’s so easy to turn this into a healthy vegetarian soup recipe. Just omit the sausage and bacon and use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. It will still be delicious.
Of course you can choose to use a lighter milk product than the cream. I would probably just use regular milk. Always cook to suit your own taste buds.
The flavor of the soup will change a bit depending on the kind of sausage you use. You can use mild or hot Italian sausage or even chorizo. All would be delicious and really add to the flavor of this kale soup recipe. Flavored sausages like honey garlic may not work as well, but again, suit your own taste buds and give it a try if you think you’ll like it.
Here is another kale soup recipe on the site. It’s a tomato based kale and chorizo soup.
Read more about the health benefits of eating kale here.
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