White Bean and Kale Soup

 

• 1 pound great northern beans

• 2 cups diced ham

• 2 cups chopped kale

• Salt and pepper to taste

Wash and rinse beans. Soak beans if desired. Place washed beans in a stock pot, cover with water to one inch over top of beans. Bring to a boil. Turn to low, and simmer for three to four hours until the beans are soft and tender. Add diced ham and chopped kale. Simmer for 1 additional hour. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot with cornbread.

(Alternatively you can prepare this dish in an electric pressure cooker, by placing all of the ingredients into the cooker, securing the lid, and setting the timer for one hour and 15 minutes.)

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Kale is popular and well known now. It is relatively everywhere. I have heard that years ago it was used as a garnish around salad bars and that virtually no one ate it. I don’t remember seeing it specifically. 

The first experience that I really remember having with kale was at my wife’s family reunion.  Sure, I had heard the folks on the cooking shows talk about kale chips, but I hadn’t gotten around to trying them. I had heard of people sauteing kale and cooking it into omelets. I thought it might be ok to have a kale, onion, cheddar omelet, but I hadn’t made one yet. So this dish at the reunion was my first actual introduction to the bright green fibrous leafy kale.

This reunion was several years ago. There was the usual type of food you would expect to find at a family reunion in the south. Someone brought fried chicken. There was potato salad, rolls, cakes, pies, an assortment of potato chips, baked beans, green beans, mashed potatoes.  I think there may have been a couple of cobblers too. Then there was soup. That soup was not this soup. That soup was prepared and presented at the family reunion by my wife’s uncle. I cannot tell you everything that was in that soup. There was a lot. There were tomatoes, corn, potatoes, green beans, carrots, onions, peas, and so much more. He had constructed this myriad, mosaic, minestrone by just putting a little bit of every vegetable that he had grown in his garden into a pot. One of the things he had grown that year was kale, and kale was in the soup. That soup was delicious. I am not sure how he did it, but the flavor of the kale was not diluted or diminished in the soup, but it imparted its flavor to the soup, improving the flavor. That savory soup is what gave me the inspiration for my white bean and kale soup. 

I wanted a simpler soup, but I knew that I wanted to include kale. I considered a kale and potato soup (and I may still try that one day). I also thought about a kale and pasta soup. Since I wanted to cook the kale long enough for it to get tender, and dry beans take a long time to cook, I settled on beans.

I made this dish at home first. It is quite a simple dish–chopped kale, diced ham, white beans– but I still wanted to test it on a small trial run first. My wife and I both enjoyed the soup on the first try. 

After this success I told my family about my new creation and expressed to them how tasty the new soup was. In truth, I kind of bragged about it. 

At some point a few weeks later, I invited everyone over to our house for dinner. This soup was on the menu. I served the soup with the cornbread you may have already read about. (Click here for the cornbread recipe.)

The results were unanimous. Everyone enjoyed the soup, even the young ones. My brother-in-law told me that when he heard what was being served for dinner, he thought he wouldn't like it. He said that he attended the dinner out of politeness, but had a backup plan to get something else for dinner after he left my house. After he tried the soup, he changed his mind, had a few helpings, and took some leftovers home. 

That is the way it is sometimes, and not just with food. Sometimes you might not expect to enjoy a dish, or an experience, or a person even, but if you move forward with an open mind and a positive attitude, you may be pleasantly surprised. 

Have you ever experienced something like this? Tell me about it in the comments. Also, if you try making this dish, let me know your experience with it. 

Try the white bean and kale soup. I recommend it.