Easy Kidney Bean and Kale Soup

Threw this together yesterday afternoon out of the remnants in my fridge. It was so darn tasty and easy to make, it pretty much made my day!

Ingredients:
2 tbs olive oil
1 leek, chopped (white and pale green part at bottom of stalk)
1 bunch of kale (purple or tender italian variety is best), removed from stalk
6 cups of high quality broth (either make your own or get the boxed stuff)
2 cans of kidney beans, rinsed
salt and pepper to taste
chunk of Pecorino (or other hard romano) cheese

Heat the olive oil in a soup pot and add the leeks. Stir on medium high heat until they begin to cook down and brown a bit. Add kale and beans and broth and continue cooking on medium heat until the kate is bright green and tender enough to eat with a spoon.

Pull of the heat, add salt and pepper to taste and shred a little cheese on top to serve. We had this soup with a bit of garlic rye toast and some roasted veggies (yams, beets and white onion with olive oil and fresh herbs under the broiler until tender and then salt and pepper to taste. Pretty darn tasty.

Serves about 4.

Spicy squash soup

This one is for Kathy!

Ingredients:
3 tbs olive oil
2-3 garlic cloves
1 red chili pepper, chopped finely
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 lb of cooked squash (pumpkin, acorn or butternut)
1 tbs brown sugar
1 1/2 cups of vegetable stock
1 tsp of lemon juice
1 can of coconut milk
salt and pepper to taste
chopped cilantro

Heat olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Cook the chili pepper, garlic and cumin seeds, stirring often for about 2 mins. Add the squash, sugar and vegetable stock and cook on medium heat for 10-15 minutes.

Once soup is fully heated through, remove from soup from heat and process with an immersion blender until squash is fully pureed. Stir in coconut milk and lemon juice and return to simmer on low heat. One soup is fully warmed, remove soup from heat, and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with fresh cilantro on top.

Serves about 4.