Recipe Review: Martha Stewart's Winter Vegetable Soup

I'm a big fan of Martha Stewart, in a very nerdy way. I love to watch her cook and see how effortless she makes everything. Here's a bit of a confession: My husband doesn't really enjoy chicken soup. This is heartbreaking news not only because I LOVE chicken soup, but also because he just told me a month or so ago. We've been together 12 years. That's a lot of chicken soup. With the never ending cold snaps, I was soup hungry, but wanted something different from traditional chicken soup. I went over to MarthaStewart.com for some inspiration and found a Winter Vegetable Soup that used Kale. Lucky for me I had a decent amount of Kale already in the fridge. This is where we started.

When I find a recipe online I love to read through the comments. It helps me get a feel for the recipe and people also put great tips in there. Someone added ginger to the soup and I added that to my list. Another added Bay Leaves so I added them as well. The recipe called for grated Parmesan on top of the finished soup, meaning it was the perfect time to pull out a treasured parm rind from my fridge. This is an amazing tip and I can't remember where I first heard it, but I'm sharing it with you. When you buy a wedge of parmesan, you eventually get all the way down to the rind. It's tough and I used to just toss them. I was then told that they make the perfect addition to soup broths. Perfect doesn't even begin to describe it. It adds some real complexity to the broth of almost any soup. Highly recommended. 

When I got home from the store I realized we were out of garlic. This NEVER happens in my house. Big disappointment, but with a two year old and an 8 month old.... I was not going back to the store. I substituted two teaspoons of garlic powder. I also knew I had more kale than the recipe called for, and I wanted to use it all, so I got an extra can of beans and additional broth to make sure it would be covered. 

This soup was really fantastic and really quick. I am still eating it and the flavors continue to evolve. The great thing about putting kale in a soup is that it holds up really well and doesn't disintegrate like other soup ingredients.  5 days later and my kale is still robust and flavorful. Another bonus on this soup: ONE POT. These are the best when you have a family and you don't feel like doing a ton of dishes. It could also work well for a meatless Monday! My one complaint about this soup is acorn squash. Acorn squash tastes great, but I am highly convinced that in the depths of hell there is a special room where all you do is peel acorn squash for eternity. Those little knobs annoy me to no end. Maybe you are a person who doesn't get annoyed by squash. Good for you.

This is a great option for the VegOut Challenge. You can knock out kale, acorn squash & onions. We used two varieties of kale to clean out the fridge. Here is the original recipe. My changes and substitutions are noted in red.

Martha Stewart's Winter Vegetable Soup

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped (we used 2 tsp garlic powder instead)
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 pound acorn squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch chunks (the worst part)
• 1 bunch kale ( 3/4 pound), ribs cut away and discarded, leaves torn (I doubled this)
• 5 1/2 cups (43.5 ounces) low-sodium chicken broth (We had extra on hand to cover the extra kale)
• 1 can (14 ounces) cannellini beans, rinsed (we used two cans)
• 3 sprigs thyme
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, more if you like stronger flavor
• 2 small bay leaves
• parmesan rind 
• Grated Parmesan, for serving (optional)

Directions

1. Step 1 (the only step)

   In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, melt butter over medium. Cook onion and garlic until fragrant, 3 minutes; season with salt and pepper. Add squash and kale and cook until kale is wilted, about 3 minutes (I covered the dutch oven to help cook the kale down); season with salt and pepper. Add broth, beans, Parmesan rind, ginger, bay leaves and thyme. Bring to a simmer and cook until squash and kale are tender, about 12 minutes. Season soup with salt and pepper and serve with Parmesan, if desired.
   
   
   
   
   
   This is what Landon's portion looked like. She loved it too! This recipe is a keeper for us. Here is where we are on our VegOut Challenge:
   
   
   Day 5: Acorn Squash, in a soup
   Day 6: Spinach, fresh in an omlette
   Day 7: Sweet Potato, roasted
   
   
   Knocking out all of our regular veggies... things are about to get interesting. 
   
   
   Have a great weekend! 
   
   
   -RT