We temporarily interrupt our regular Christmas schedule of baking and cheese and all things indulgent to bring you this moderately healthy soup. Why? Because it’s warming and easy and reasonably light and healthy and I need to rally.
You know how I can tell I’m getting old? It’s not even December 20th yet and my body is already going “ugh! Too much richness. Too much booze. Too much sugar. Too much. Too much.”
Surely I’m not looking forward to January? That sober month where everyone goes back to the gym and eats nothing but kale and lemon water (well, maybe not that last part, but people do tend to get some lofty health resolutions).
No, I wouldn’t go that far. But I do want to be a little kinder to myself between Christmas parties. Less chips and cookies, more veggies. Less rum and eggnog, more green tea.
It doesn’t help that things haven’t really slowed down at work yet either. My last day of work before the holidays is tomorrow and the pile on my desk looks… unnervingly insurmountable. I haven’t slept through the night in almost a week (anyone else a stress-insomniac?). My diet these days consists mostly of things I scrounge from the gift baskets I find in the office lunch room (chocolate, cookies, wheels of brie and salmon pâté that somehow doesn’t require refrigeration).
It’s the perfect time for soup. A hearty soup. A warming soup. A bowl of comfort food that feels filling but doesn’t weigh me down as I run to my next task at hand.
It doesn’t hurt that soups are great at this time of year because you can make a great big pot and then feed yourself, stress free, for up to a week. Lunches, dinners, snacks- soup is great for any time.
The high fiber beans in this dish are good for your body- filling and packed with nutrients. Cured chorizo is so flavour rich that a little goes a long way. You can enjoy all the spicy, meaty punch without actually sitting and eating an entire sausage (like I did on Wednesday, mindlessly, over yet another festive plate of cured meat, cheese and wine) (it’s a hard life, I know).
Sneak a handful of veggies in there and a bunch of kale and, dare I say, this might just be The Meal that saves me through the rest of the holidays (between festivities).
| Three Bean Soup with Chorizo & Kale | Print |
- ~2 cups cannellini beans*
- ~1 cup kidney beans*
- ~1 cup black beans*
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 red, yellow or orange bell peppers, diced
- 1 carrot, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 3 links cured chorizo sausage, chopped
- 4 cups chicken stock**
- 1 large tin diced tomatoes
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1½ tsp fennel seeds
- 1 cup fresh kale, chopped
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Saute onion and garlic together in a bit of olive oil until soft and fragrant. Add bell pepper and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.
- Add all the beans and stir well. Add paprika, thyme, fennel seeds and chopped chorizo and mix. Add diced tomatoes and chicken stock, stir to incorporate and simmer for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. The cured sausage will have a fair bit of salt in it so you might not need to add any additional salt. Add kale and cook for 2-3 minutes until softened.
- Serve with slices of crusty bread.
** Except this one time, instead of chicken stock, I used the leftover liquid from a pork butt I had made in the slow cooker. Wowza. Just saying, if you happen to slow cook a pork butt... maybe freeze that cooking liquid for a rainy day soup-fest.
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