Chicken and Kale Soup

With the cold weather upon us, our consumption of soup has increased greatly.  Lots of squash, vegetable and chicken soups and stews have been making an appearance on our dinner table and then again the next day for lunch.

The most recent soup was a wonderfully simple Chicken and Kale soup.  As I have said before I struggle with greens.  I primarily use them in soups because that is the easiest for me and one way I know my kids will eat them.  They become completely oblivious to the tiny shrived piece of green in their soup and don't stick their noses up at like they do when it appears in a sauteed pile on their dinner plate.

While I like soups that simmer on the stove all day filling my house with a wonderful aroma I like 30 minute soups even better.  Soups that can be made at 9:00 in the morning, thrown in the fridge then reheated at 7:00 pm after practices are over are even better, and this is a soup that falls into both of those last two categories.

Chicken Kale Soup

2 chicken breast, diced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 onion, diced
1 Tbsp taco seasoning (see below)
2 cans dice tomatoes
4 cups chicken broth
1 bunch kale, stems removed roughly chopped

Directions:
In large soup pan, over medium high heat, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  Add chicken cook until light brown.  Add garlic, onion and taco seasoning, cook for about 1 minute. Add tomatoes and broth, cook for 20 minutes stir in kale, cook for another 10 minutes or until kale is soft.

*Chicken breast can be replaced with sausage of chicken sausage, adjust amount of taco seasoning if using a spicy sausage.

 Taco Seasoning

4 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 teaspoons paprika

6 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons fine sea salt

4 teaspoons black pepper

Directions:

Mix together ingredients in an airtight container. Shake to combine.

Add 2-3 tablespoons for every 1 pound of ground beef, turkey or chicken. Use to replace store-bought taco seasoning in any recipe

Pesto

I am not a huge fan of cooking with greens.  I use them in soup, but other than that I don't know what to do with them and therefore end up not cooking with them very often.  Usually if I have some in the fridge chances are pretty good that a portion of them will end up in the garbage, and I thought that was the fate of the half bunch of Collard Greens I had leftover from our New Years Day celebration.  Then I saw Sunny Anderson making a collard green pesto and  I now have one more way of  using up those greens.

This is a wonderfully  garlicky and nutty pesto.  Without any bitterness that is sometimes found in greens.  The recipe by Sunny Anderson uses kalamata olives.  I didn't include them because I thought the brine flavor of the olives would be too much for the kids, but after reading reviews of similar recipes I am definitely going to add the olives next time I make this pesto.

Besides the wonderful flavor and numerous ways this pesto can be used, it is a a great recipe to make with kids.  There is something kids of all ages can do.  Older kids can do all of the steps, with the exception of cooking the greens.  Younger ones they can get lots of practice cutting by rough cutting the greens and garlic before adding them to the food processor.  And the really little ones always love pressing the buttons and watching the food go around in the food processor.

I got two meals out of this recipes.  I used it one night on pasta and another night used it as a sauce for turkey meatball subs.  Both dishes were simple, super flavorful and enjoyed by the big and little people of the house, which recently hasn't been happening very often.  

Collard Green Pesto
Printer Ready

1 lb Collard greens (stems removed)
½ cup Almonds lightly toasted
2 cloves Garlic
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup Olive Oil

Directions:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add greens and blanch for about 1 minute, or until bright green.  Drain and shock in ice water bath.  Remove from ice water and pat dry with paper towels.  Roughly chop greens

Add greens, almonds, garlic and cheese to food processor.  Process until ingredients become finely chopped, with processor running begin adding olive oil until a paste is formed and pesto comes together.