Kale Tales Continued........

"Kale smoothies everyday, kale salad with beets, carrots, avocado, kale currie, kale sauteed with garlic and olive oil, kale in place of spinach in any recipe that has spinach. I tried kale blended with apple juice and that didn't work well, it was really chunky and kind of gross. I think that's it!!"  That's it...haha. My friend Diana has soooo much kale growing in her backyard it's unreal.  She just told me that the "curly leaf" kale is now ready to be harvested.   

When I saw this recipe, I called her immediately to order a fresh bag :)  Farro soup with kale and cannelli beans starts with mirepoix which is comprised of 25% carrots, 25% celery, and 50% onions all roughly chopped.  I learned the exact name of this mixture while reading "Notes on Cooking A Short Guide to an Essential Craft", by Lauren Costello and Russell Reich. 

I made several additions and substitutions to this recipe since I'm pretty bad at following directions.  Instead of farro, I used oat groats.  After the mirepoix softened and the garlic was mixed in, water was added to create the broth.  I mixed in chicken bouillon to flavor the water.  I did not have time to soak the canelli beans overnight so instead I purchased a can of white northern beans.  I added a diced sweet potato for fun which gave the broth a really sweet flavor.  I then followed the rest of the recipe straight from the book adding the can of diced tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, kale, fresh basil and parsley from my garden.

Ben and I really liked the soup!  Diana and Chris though it was delicious stating it was filling with the grains and similar to an Italian minestrone.  Diana said they would have put 20X more kale in the recipe. I was nervous about overdoing it with a vegetable Ben had never heard of.  A repeat recipe for sure!    - amy w.