CSA: Kale soup with roasted vegetables
28 Oct
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is when a farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Interested consumers then purchase a share to receive a box of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season. The produce is fairly priced, local grown, and in my case, organic.
Thanks to readers Tom and Christina for pointing out that I had the wrong name of the squash in my last post. It’s good to know that my readers are paying attention!
As I mentioned before, this is the second dish that came out of all those roasted vegetables. I realized that while kale, in all of its goodness, is a wonderful green vegetable, it can get a little bit bitter if you cook it for too long.
I added some of the squash mixture from my last post into this dish, giving the broth a slight orange color and contrasting the kale with a hint of sweetness. Some stewed tomatoes would also help cut the bitterness of the kale. The soup was also perfectly flavorful with a surprising kick of heat at the end, which I absolutely loove! Try making this with whatever vegetables you have on hand. 
Makes 8-10 servings
Ingredients:
4 cups of chicken broth
1/2 pound of kale
1/2 pound of roasted potatoes
1 medium carrot (cut into big chunks)
1 cup of cabbage
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
4 whole cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 teaspoons of salt
5 tablespoons of squash puree or stewed tomatoes(optional)
Procedure:
1. Roast carrots, potatoes, and garlic on a baking sheet sprinkled with salt and pepper for 1 hour in the oven at 400 degrees.
2. Add chicken broth, thyme, cabbage to pot and simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes.
3. Remove thyme. Add roasted vegetables from step 1 to the pot. Continue to simmer soup on low for at least 1 hour.
4. Prepare kale by washing and removing the middle stem. Cut into thin ribbons.
6. Remove garlic pieces in the soup. Add kale.
7. Add squash puree (or tomato puree). Cook for 10 minutes.
8. Serve with bread.
