Crowbarmama's Kale Soup

Growing up, there was not a week that went by that we didn’t have soup at least a couple nights a week. My favorite was watercress soup with rice and linguica, a Portuguese sausage. But watercress weren’t always available. I remember driving with my parents to the foothills, looking for streams along the backroads that might have watercress growing wild. I remember my brothers and I arguing because we wanted to get out of the car with my dad while he went out to harvest our foraged treasure. Occasionally, we would get enough to freeze for future use. That was a real treat!

Little CrowbarMama early 80's

My second favorite soup was Sopa de Couve, or Kale Soup. My mom’s version was very simple, but always tasty. It was flavored by a piece of linguica and it included diced onion, torn kale, a white potato or two, and occasionally a sweet potato (yum!) and water with a dash of vinegar. I still make this soup and my kiddos really like it. I don’t always have linguica handy, but I make bone broth regularly, so I can still make a flavorful soup, even though it would be better with my father’s homemade smoked linguica!

Anyway, here are my simple steps, and these types of recipes are a handful of this, a bunch of that- no real exact measurements. This is also because soup is so personal. I like mine thick, some like theirs lighter with much more broth. It’s a matter of preference.

Side note- I love this red knife. I bought it along with a little green knife that is often seen in my posts, at Costco when we were in the trailer because they were lightweight and took up less space then my heavy duty knives, and I just LOVE them!

I start by sauteeing some chopped onion and celery(Mom’s recipe doesn’t include celery, but I try to sneak in extra veggies every chance I get) and once they’re almost done, I add in chopped garlic. I like several cloves of garlic here.

Have you ever seen a recipe that only calls for 1 clove of garlic? Yeah, the only time I use only 1 clove is if I’m making a cold-busting tea with garlic, cayenne, lemon & honey and even then, it had better be a really big clove!

Next I add water or bone broth, usually at least 10 cups, since there are 6 of us, and a Tbsp or 2 of Celtic or Himalayan salt.

Then I add 1-2 bunches of kale, stems torn out to give to the chickens as a treat, and I like to hold the bunch of kale and slice through as thinly as possible. I, myself, like to find nice big pieces of kale, but I find the kids eat more of it when sliced thinly.

I also added one sweet potato, peeled and chopped, and about 1/3 cup of white rice.

The kids seem to like soups very thick, almost more stew-like. You could leave out the rice and/or the sweet potato if you wanted a lighter, more broth-based soup.

Oftentimes I will add about a Tablespoon of ground turmeric. (again, not in Mom’s recipe, but turmeric is anti-inflammatory, so I add it to most savory dishes. Side note- it’s the bomb mixed into ketchup!)

If I’m going to add some linguica, I toss it in now. I’ve also used Italian sausage-very tasty! In fact, if you can tolerate white beans, they would go well in this soup too!

I set the Instant Pot to Manual pressure, High and set it for 15 minutes.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of the finished product. It was getting late and the natives were restless. And there weren’t even any leftovers to photograph the next day, which means I’ll need to make this again for you guys.

If you’re new to using turmeric, be warned, the color is very potent! The soup came out very yellow, which my kids are used to, but might look strange if you’re not used to it.

There isn’t usually much leftover, but it always gets eaten by the next day, often for breakfast! (We love this soup!)