Week 1: White Bean Soup with Chorizo & Kale

For my first soup of the year, I choose to make White Bean Soup with Chorizo and Kale. I choose this recipe not only because it is the first in the Winter section of the cookbook, but I was excited about the familiar flavor of chorizo mixed with the new flavors of white beans and kale, two ingredients I have never cooked before.

First off, collecting the ingredients was somewhat of a challenge. Though my freezer is stocked full of Mexican Chorizo, I did not know where to find the Spanish cousin. After some Yelping, I found Goulart Sausage Company not far from my office. I drove there on my lunch break and I was in and out in minutes.

Next challenge: Salt pork. Since I didn't really even know what this is and where I could buy it, I did some general Googling. Turns out it's similar to uncut bacon and very salted. Substitutes include bacon, ham and panchetta, but I choose to at least try and find it. I figured if I couldn't find it or it was way too expensive, I would substitute it for the bacon I already had in my fridge. I made a few calls to the fancy grocery stores along my route home. Turns out that the Nob Hill by my house had a ton and it only cost me $2! (Whole Foods was out, by the way). After a trip to Trader Joe's and Real Produce, it was time to go home and cook!

Preparation & Cooking

The first step was to clean and soak the beans. Though I 'm used to soaking my beans for several hours or overnight, i crossed my fingers that this method of quick soaking would do the trick. I tried to follow the directions and ingredients closely, even though I'm always tempted to put my own spin on food. But I figured I'd stick to the book for at least the first recipe. In retrospect, I would soak the beans the way I'm used to next time, since they ended up taking quite a while to cook. Nevertheless, I cleaned the beans, placed them in a heat resistant bowl and covered them with 8 cups boiling water for 1 hour.

While the beans soaked, I sauteed the onions, carrots, and celery with the olive oil and then added the garlic after the veggies were softened. I rinsed and cut the salt pork in 4 pieces. Since I only needed a fourth of the salt pork, I cut it in smaller pieces and froze the rest for another recipe.

After the beans soaked, I drained and rinsed the beans and added the beans and salt pork to the vegetables. I stirred in thyme, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper and 10 cups broth. The recipe actually called for chicken stock, but I went with Trader Joes's Low-sodium chicken broth instead.

I let the pot simmer for 1 hour, covered. I tasted the soup at this point, and sadly, was not impressed. I then wished I had used the stock which would have given the broth more flavor. I didn't give up though; there was still a few ingredients missing.

I let the pot simmer fo another hour with the chorizo. The recipe called for "30 minutes, until beans were tender" but the were definately not tender after 30 minutes. Maybe if I had soaked them longer... but who knows. This is my first time cooking white beans. Once I was satisfied with the beans, I removed the salt pork and threw it away. The recipe up to this point can be made a day or two ahead, so I tooka advantage of that. I let the pot cool and refrigerated it until the next day. Oh, and the broth had become much tastier after the addition of the chorizo. I also added more salt and pepper before refrigerating.

The next day, I reheated the pot over medium heat and added the kale to the simmering soup, cooking for about 3 minutes until wilted. And that was that. I served the soup with Parmesan cheese and Pilsbury Crescent rolls.


Eating

Overall, this recipe was pretty easy to make and it came out pretty good. The family enjoyed it, and they had a ton of questions about the chorizo. I wasn't too excited about the flavor of the kale, and I think spinach leaves would have also been yummy. But the flavor of the chorizo in the broth was quite yummy and gave the soup a little kick (along with the red pepper flakes). Not sure I'm in a hurry to make this again, but I will enjoy the leftovers.

Summary

White Bean Soup with Chorizo and Kale
Prep time: 1 hour (to soak beans and chop veggies)
Cook time: 2 hours on night 1, 20 min on day 2
Servings: 6
Taste: 3 stars (1 = yuck, 4 = yum)
Preparation: easy
Cost: $26.82
Stores: 4
Ingredients:
1 lb dried great Northern beans / $1.34 / Nob Hill
1 4-ounce piece of salt pork / $2.69/lb = $2.02 / Nob Hill
3 tablespoons olive oil / from home
2 cups shredded carrots / $0.69/lb = $0.69 / Real Produce
2 cups chopped celery / $1.19 / Nob Hill
2 cups chopped onion / $1.79/lb = $1.56 / Real Produce
freshly ground black pepper / from home
1 tablespoon dried thyme / $1.99 / Trader Joe's
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes / from home
5 large garlic cloves peeled and chopped / from home
10 - 12 cups chicken stock / 3 @ $1.99 = $5.97 / Trader Joe's
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, more if needed / $1.79 / Nob Hill
8 ounce Spanish chorizo / $5.00 / Goulart Sausage Company
5 cups loosely packed, chopped kale, stems removed / $0.99 / Real Produce
Parmesan cheese (for garnish) / $3.29 /Trader Joe's