Healthy Heath

Soup Week January 8, 2012

This week has been filled with soup. The past two weeks had been filled with delicious goodies and tasty treats. I certainly enjoyed myself on Christmas with Chris’s family with a fantastic meal of lamb chops. Then we went for a week with my parents, who fed us heartily the whole time.

After all the fun, I felt a bit weighted down and decided to make two pots of soup to eat for the week. I made Caldo Verde and Turkey Cabbage Soup, both were delicious. However this did make for a rather dull week in food. One soup for lunch, the other for dinner. I love making soups. They are incredibly easy, very satisfying in the winter, and last for quite a while.

For the first soup, Caldo Verde:

Ingredients:

• Cooking spray
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 8 oz uncooked turkey sausage, cut into 1/2 inch thick rounds
• 4 cups canned chicken broth
• 4 cups kale, stemmed and shredded
• 1 medium potato, peeled
• 1/2 tsp table salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/8 tsp hot pepper sauce, or to taste

Instructions:

• Spray a large saucepan with nonstick spray; set over medium heat. Add the onion; cook, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 20 seconds.
• Add the sausage; cook, stirring often, until browned, about 5 minutes.
• Pour in the broth; bring to a simmer, stirring often.
• Using the small holes of a box grater, grate the potato into the stew. Stir well while returning to a simmer. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring a couple of times.
• Stir in the kale; cover and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the kale is tender, about 12 minutes. Stir in the salt, pepper, and hot red pepper sauce before serving. Yields about 1 1/2 cups per serving.

Well, mine should be called: Caldo Morado. I used purple flowering kale rather than the traditional green. It made for an odd looking, but tasty soup!

For the second soup, Turkey Cabbage:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 46 oz V8, or tomato juice
• 1 1/4 lb cabbage, cored and chopped
• 3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 3 ribs celery, chopped
• 1 bouillon cube (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste
• water, if needed

Instructions:

• Brown meat with onion, breaking up meat into small bits. Drain fat and transfer into a saucepan.
• Add tomato juice, cabbage, carrots, celery, bouillon, salt and pepper.
• Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. If the soup gets too thick, add a little water.

It’s a really delicious, hearty soup that is nice on the first day, and even better on the second (or third) night. I certainly feel lighter of foot now that I’ve eaten my veggies in soup form for the last few days. I am ready for a wider variety of food for the coming week!

As for activities this week, Chris and I went to a contra dance in Fort Collins yesterday. It was so much fun! I love contra dancing, as there is lots of spinning and flying around the dance floor. It was made even more fun because we knew one of the members of the band! Definitely a night to remember!