Portugese Kale Soup

This is a really tasty and nourishing soup perfect for this time of year.  I got it from a book called "Twelve Months of Monastery Soups" by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette.

Portugese Kale Soup

10 cups water, more if needed

1 cup white beans

2 large onions, chopped

1 pound kale, chopped

2 potatoes, cubed

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

1 tsp. vinegar

4 garlic cloves, minced

chorizo chunks (optional for the vegetarian)

salt and pepper to taste

Soak the beans overnight. Rinse in cold water

Pour the water into a large soup pot and bring to a boil.  Add the beans, onions, kale, potatoes, tomato paste, vinegar, garlic and chorizo.  Simmer slowly over low-medium heat for 2 hours.  Add more water if necessary.  Stir from time to time so the soup does not burn on the bottom of the pot.  When the soup is done add the salt and pepper and stir well.  Turn off the heat, cover the pot and let it stand for 10 minutes before serviing.  Serve hot.

YUM - enjoy.

Medori, this sounds awesome! If you were to take out the potatoes and tomatoes (I'm allergic) what would it be like? What would you substitute if needed?

Hi Lilou - You could substitute the potatoes with some other root vegetable - like turnips? rutabaga? carrots? all three?  As for the tomato paste - I went online to look up substitutions and learned a new word:

Umami (/u?m??mi/), or savory taste, is one of the five basic tastes (together with sweetness, sourness, bitterness, and saltiness). It has been described as brothy or meaty. A loanword from the Japanese (??? ^?), umami can be translated as "pleasant savory taste".

Someone said the tomato paste was to provide this flavor.  Not sure what you could sub for that!

Good luck and let me know how it turnes out!