killer kale soup

my wife makes a killer kale soup. it's a modernized version of the soup her spanish grandmother used to make. this stuff is great on those brisk, or cold fall and winter days.

ingredients

• 1 bunch of kale, stalks and stems removed. you only want the tender leaves. tear or cut to easy to eat size
• 1 small yellow onion, diced fine
• 1 (or more to taste) clove garlic, minced
• 5 or 6 carrots, peeled and sliced medium thickness
• 4 or 5 red potatoes, with skin left on, cut into eigths or at least into bite sized chunks.
• 1 1/2 quart chicken stock, homemade, or swansons lite salt version. i like the swanson's better than any other commercially available stock, and i've tried them all!
• 1 can (15 oz.) white beans, rinsed
• 1 can (15 oz.) sliced, stewed, or diced tomatoes. note, if you don't go out and pick your own tomatoes, or get them from a farmers market, don't bother using grocery store produce department tomatoes. you will get much better flavor from canned. they can the tomatoes when they are freshly picked, not after they've been sitting in a box or on the shelf for 2 weeks. honest. canned is way better than safeway produce dept. tomatoes. so the moral is: grow your own, and can them!

saute the onion, garlic, potatoes and carrots until slightly colored. you don't want to carmalize these too much, just cook enough to sweat the onion and garlic, and give the spuds and carrots a little color.

add stock, and let simmer for about a half hour. i've used home made turkey stock from the roasted carcasses of fried turkeys (hmmm, there's another recipe idea!). THAT soup knocked my socks off!

add the beans, kale, and tomatoes, and let simmer for another 1/2 hour, or until the kale no longer resembles linoleum, and the veggies are tender.

we salt and pepper to taste, after cooking. this allows each diner to modify to taste.

this works very well with a nice loaf of crusty pugliese or other country bread, and a clean little sauvignon blanc from the napa valley. (p.s. if you have any need to figure out what to get me for a present, a 97 eisele vinyard, araujo estate bottled sauvignon blanc would do quite nicely!) even a 98 would be fine.