Sunday Soups

As you know, one of my goals for this year is to cook food that creates leftovers. Easy lunches, quick dinners, healthy ingredients – it’s an all-around win.
We’ve been doing this every Sunday with a variety of soups. It’s been quite cold here in the Northeast and there’s nothing better than a piping hot bowl of soup on a cold or snowy day.

Here are two of our recent faves.
Portuguese Kale Soup with Garlic Toasts
adapted from St. John’s Club Kale Soup Emeril’s TV Dinners by Emeril Lagasse

• 2Tb olive oil
• 1 pound spicy sausage – I use Hillshire Farms Hot Links
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 10 cloves garlic, rough chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 4 quarts of chicken stock or chicken broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 2 large Idaho potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1/2 tsp dried red pepper flakes
• 1 bunch kale, well washed and cut into 2″ pieces
• 1 15 oz can white navy beans, rinsed
• 1 15 oz can red beans, rinsed
• Salt and pepper

• 1 baguette
• Additional garlic cloves

Heat the olive oil in an 8-quart stock pot over medium heat. Add the sausage and onion, season with salt and pepper, and saute, stirring, until onions are translucent and sausage has begun to brown – approximately 3-5 minutes.
Add the garlic, bay leaves, parsley and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
Add the thyme and red pepper flakes and cook for an additional minute.
Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Season again with salt and pepper.
Reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer, uncovered, for approximately 1-1/2 hours.
Add the potatoes and kale, season again with salt and pepper, and cook for approximately 15 minutes.
Add the beans and cook for another 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

Make the Garlic Toasts

While the soup is finishing, slice the baguette into 3/8″ slices and place on a baking sheet. Put the slices into a 500° oven for a few minutes – until just starting to crisp up. Put oven on broil. Remove the baking sheet, rub both sides of the toasts with garlic cloves and put back into the oven to toast, flipping when the first side is browned. Remove from the oven.
When potatoes are tender, skim off any fat that rises to the top, remove the bay leaves and serve with garlic toasts.
Pasta e Fagioli con Carneadapted from Pasta e Fagioli I from allrecipes.com

• 2 Tb olive oil
• 1.5 pounds ground beef
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 6 cloves garlic, rough chopped
• 3 (14.5 oz) cans of stewed tomatoes – chopped, reserving liquid
• 5 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1-1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 3/8 cup chopped parsley
• 2 (15 oz) cans cannelini beans, rinsed
• 1 (15 oz) can red beans, rinsed
• 1/2 pound ditalini pasta, cooked

Note: the ditalini is added to each bowl individually to avoid the pasta from getting mushy when stored in the refrigerator
Heat oil in a 6-quart stock pot. Saute beef until cooked through, breaking up into small pieces as it cooks.
Add onion and saute until translucent.
Add garlic and saute for another 3 minutes.
Add tomatoes with reserved liquid, chicken broth, basil and ground pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 1.25 hours.
Add beans and parsley and simmer for another 15 minutes.
Ladle soup into bowls and add ditalini to each bowl. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.
Making the Leftovers Successful
We struggle with making use of leftovers – we run out of time in the morning to put it together and the lack of ease just makes us fall back into buying lunch during the day.

A few weeks back we started packaging all the leftovers into single-serving containers. If there are condiments – like grated cheese for the Pasta E Fagioli – I put small amounts into ziploc bags to bring to work and use throughout the week. What a difference!
Now the biggest challenge is remembering the grab a container from the fridge before we leave for the day.