Greenest Soup

I have decided that February, March and perhaps April are bad months for goals. It's not my fault, it's the season. It's dark, it's cold, for every fleeting glimpse of spring there are another 15 cm of snow. My only goal for the immediate future is to not irrevocably damage myself or others. I will run when I darn well please. The laundry can rot for all I care. Washing machine: I will see you in a few weeks.

Not that it's been a bad winter. In fact, I got engaged! Henceforth, Boyfriend will be renamed Fiance. This is likely the only blog change that will occur in the next little while. Eventually, I will probably be writing this as a wedding blog, but that's a ways off. Interesting proposal note: I suspected something was up when I found roses the day before. In the laundry room. The one place he never expected me to be!

My point is, I've been in a regeneration mode. I can't grow right now. I need to do some minor foundation repair. It's great to be constantly looking for progress, but it's not realistic all the time. I'm not letting myself go completely. I'm keeping an eye on the budget, I'm working out a few times a week, I made the greenest soup ever. But I'm just giving myself a break for a little while. I'm sure I'll be back to my normal, over-achieving self soon.

In the spirit of doing whatever the heck I feel like, here is the greenest soup.

Adapted from "Cook's Illustrated"

An onion
Some butter or oil
2lbs broccoli
1/2 lbs kale
2 cups broth
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Cheddar cheese.

Chop up the onion, broccoli and kale stems. Saute in butter or oil for about 10 minutes.

Add 1 cup water and baking soda (I don't know why, but if Cook's says so I do it. Probably something science-y) cover and simmer 20 minutes

Add the broth two cups of water and the kale leaves. Simmer a few minutes more. Throw in some grated cheese and puree until it has the consistency of green slime.

Seriously, it's pretty good.

Dreamy Kale

When you start dreaming about kale, you’re eating too much kale. This is exactly the situation I found myself in one morning, waking up to wonder, “Was it really a dream? Did I actually dream about cooking kale? Do I have any kale in the fridge?”. Well I don’t know if it was dream or heavenly vision but I woke up in possession of a new recipe, and a new reason to fall in love with kale all over again.

In the dream, I was washing and ripping kale leaves, getting ready to make my staple kale and chickpeas (recipe at www.orangette.blogspot.com) and sighing, wishing that Boyfriend found it filling enough for a meal, when it hit me: not chickpeas but chicken! I decided to make the switch to satisfy my ever-loving carnivore. As the dream continued I saw myself sautéing the chicken with prosciutto, for flavour. What an idea! Where had that come from? A few hours after waking I was still mulling it over in my head, so when I went home for lunch I took out some chicken to thaw. And thus, that night I had the best kale yet.

Dreamy Kale

• Two chicken breasts, cut into cubes
• ¼ cup prosciutto, shredded
• 1 tbs Olive oil
• A big bunch of kale, washed and cut into ribbons (should still be wet)

Heat oil in a large, deep skillet. Add prosciutto and chicken and sauté until chicken is browned. Add the kale, cook until wilted. (You may need to add it in batches, but as it wilts it will shrink and you should have room for all of it). Reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Cook another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serves 2

An Unusual bit of Experimentation

In an attempt to eat healthier in general, Boyfriend and I have taken to loading up on vegetables at the Farmer's Market and then looking through cookbooks for interesting ways to cook them. We found huge stalks of purple kale with bright pink stalks and purpley veins running through firm, dark green leaves. It was irresistible. The recipe we chose was from my favourite food blog, orangette (see link below) but there were some changes. The recipe was for braised greens with chickpeas, and seemed pretty simple. We substituted shallots for the onions, because we'll need them for a recipe later this week (stay tuned) but we were a bit stumped when we found that our local grocery store had no chickpeas. Seriously, no chickpeas. No brand-name chickpeas, no store-brand chickpeas, no organic chickpeas. No chickpeas at all. We were in disbelief. How could there be no chickpeas? There was a big gaping hole on the shelf between the beans and the lentils where the chickpeas should have been. The beans and lentils were both decently stocked. It made no sense. Boyfriend and I wandered up and down the aisle, muttering "no chickpeas? no chickpeas!" over and over. Eventually, we were forced to give up.

Now, I very rarely make changes to recipes. Shallots for onions are one thing, but how could we not have chickpeas with braised greens and chickpeas? After much, much deliberation, we decided to go with the lentils. Neither of us are very experienced with them, but we figured they looked similar and are both involved in Indian food in similar ways, so we nervously went ahead with it.

Boyfriend washed the Kale while I sliced it into ribbons. The kitten had a very odd reaction to the Kale, she seemed to be afraid of it. When boyfriend shook a leaf she'd leap at it, then mewl at me with fear and confusion in her eyes. She later took a stalk (about a foot long) and ran upstairs with it.

We cooked garlic and shallots in olive oil in the large skillet until the onions were nice and soft, then added the lentils. We weren't sure how long to cook them, as it turns out lentils are very tiny and probably don't need to be cooked long at all. Anyway, we gave it a few minutes and then added the kale. Looking from the bowl of kale ribbons and the pan they were supposed to go into, my elementary understanding of physics warned me this couldn't possibly work. I threw in a a handful, and the kale shrunk up wonderfully. I was able to add it, handful by handful every few minutes until all had somehow found room in the skillet. Orangette then advises gently simmering for 15 minutes, but we found this to be unnecessary. Either because the lentils were so small or because it took so long to get all the kale in, we worried about overcooking after about 5 minutes.

The result was one of my favourite things: warm mush. Comforting and yummy. I once dated a vegan who said that he liked his food to taste as much like dirt as possible (we didn't last long) and I think I almost understand what he was saying when I ate this. There was a simple earthiness to it. Boyfriend found it a bit bland, and not quite filling enough, but it was just right for me and I think it'll make a great lunch. Next time I'll have to see how well it keeps.

The best food blog out there: www.orangette.blogspot.com