All Hail, Kale (Soup)

Made "Potato and Kale Soup" from The Ultimate Soup Cookbook (Reader's Digest, 2007) with garlic twists for supper last night and it was ... okay. I think we would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had not made "Portuguese Kale Soup" from Myra Goodman's Food to Live By: The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook (Workman Publishing, 2006) last month. That was an excellent soup -- a soup beyond compare, a soup to overshadow all other soups. Compared to that soup, this soup was grey dishwater with some green bits.

Now, when I chose this recipe for "Potato and Kale" soup, I saw that it used little to no seasoning but I reckoned I would just tweak it a bit and everything would be all potato-y kale-y goodness. Where the original recipe called for water, I used low-sodium vegetable broth. Where it wanted 3 garlic cloves, I used six. Where it wanted a quarter teaspoon of black pepper, I chucked in liberal amounts of pepper, thyme, and salt. Knowing The Husband well, I also added in some sliced cooked chicken bratwurst at the end with the kale to give the soup a level of meatiness he would approve.

It was all for naught. The soup needed twice as much seasoning. Maybe some chili pepper flakes. Or shredded cheese. Oh, god, yes! Cheese! I will throw some in my lunch bowl and see how that improves things ...

To go with the soup, I made little garlic biscuit thingamajigs using a Pillsbury crescent roll sheet and some Stonewall Kitchen Garlic Spread. I unrolled the sheet, slathered it with spread, rolled the sheet back up, cut it into one-inch slices, arranged the slices on a baking sheet, and baked them in a 375°F oven for about fifteen minutes (I think -- I was not exactly paying attention). They were very pretty and quite tastey, but could have benefited from a little cheese, too!