Potato-Kale soup for a cold fall night

We were supposed to make potato-leek soup in class, but came up dry (no leeks). So, I decided to make it at home. I went to the market, and guess what? November is not a good month to buy leeks. Nothing. Drier than Death Valley in August (not counting badwater and Salt Creek).

They did have kale, though. Nice green color, healthy, should make good soup. Same basic technique as with the leeks, so still good for practice.

Potato-Kale soup
ingredients
Small dice onions
Small dice Russet potatoes
Small dice celery
Kosher salt
Kale
Lemon juice
A dash of cream
Julienned carrots for garnish

process

1. Sweat the onions and celery in some oil
2. Add the potatoes and enough water to cover, and not much more
3. Simmer until the potatoes are tender
4. Rough chop the kale, push down over the potatoes, cover briefly to wilt.
5. Blend everything with an immersion blender. If you want the kale to have a bit of texture, go to the next step. Otherwise, you can cook it 10-15 minutes to soften it up, but I thought the texture was more interesting, and less cooking normally means more vitamins.
6. Add lemon juice to taste and just a dash of cream
7. Adjust salt, garnish with julienned carrots, serve.

 The carrots aren't just there for color. They're the missing ingredient from the mirepoix, left out because I wanted a vibrant green soup with no ground up orange bits. Set on top of the soup, they bring back the earthy carrot flavor missing from the mirepoix. They even add a few gratuitous vitamins.

This was the perfect soup for the coldest, rainiest night this fall. It's filling, so it could almost be a meal in itself, accompanied by a bit of bread.