Freakin' Freezin'

Mission Hill is feeling more and more like the antarctic everyday. Fighting back, I made soup. It is a combination of my grandmother's beans and escarole soup, and well, some things I had in my kitchen.

White bean and kale soup
4 celery stalks chopped
2 carrots chopped
1 onion chopped
6 cloves of garlic minced
1 tomato chopped
1 lb of kale roughly chopped
3 sun-dried tomatoes
1t of rosemary
1T parsley
2t red crushed pepper
salt and pepper
lots of water or stock
1lb of cannelloni beans soaked overnight with garlic and salt

I first threw the carrots, celery, garlic and onion in the pot, covered with water and let it cook down and become fragrant. In Italian this is called soffrito, or "softly fried" which really means to sweat aromatic vegetables. In Italy you can buy pre-chopped frozen aromatics which makes soup and sauce making twice as easy. But today I chopped my own.

Once the mixture has become soft, add the kale, beans and tomatoes, more salt and pepper, and maybe a little more heat as well. This will need to cook for at least an hour, most likely more. If you don't want soup when you start this recipe you will definitely be hungry when it is ready.

If this soup upsets you because there isn't enough animal in it you can always add sausage or bacon.