Kale and White Bean Soup

"Cooking Vegetarian Kale Soup" by Old Shoe Woman is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 or 2 onions
• As much garlic as you want (minimum 4-5 cloves)
• 1 big bunch of kale, or frozen kale if you can get it and don't feel like chopping
• At least 2 cans of drained cannellini beans, but you'll probably want more than that (obvs use dry soaked beans if you prefer, but that's a lot more work)
• Some kind of real (precooked) or faux sausage, chopped into bite-sized pieces. 
• I used kielbasa because it's smoky. If you're veg or vegan, just use a good fake sausage along the lines of an Italian/bratwurst/kielbasa type thing, and stay away from stuff that's really herby. I'd recommend adding a few drops (or to taste) of liquid smoke if you're going with a meat substitute
• Parmesan rind 
• (totally optional: I'm lucky enough to be able to get parmesan rinds for cheap, but you can also just put maybe a quarter cup or more of parmesan in; if you're vegan, leaving this out won't ruin the soup in the slightest)
• Chicken/vegan chicken stock or bouillon 
• (there's some great no-chicken bouillon out there that would go great with this). You can try it with vegetable stock, but I haven't tried that myself. I'm guessing it'll work great
• White wine or dry vermouth, also optional
• (I like vermouth because it doesn't go bad, but I also like drinking white wine). You can totally leave this out too and everything will be fine
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Red pepper flakes

INSTRUCTIONS:

• If you're washing and chopping your own kale, remove the stems and cut the leaves into 1-inch strips, or bite-sized pieces if you want more work. Chop or slice your onions. No need to dice here, because they'll get really soft in the soup. Crush the garlic cloves.
• In a big soup pot, add a decent amount of olive oil -- you're going to add more later, so don't go too crazy. But this makes a lot of soup, so it's pretty forgiving. 
• Turn the heat to medium-high, toss in the onions. Cook them until they're translucent, then add the garlic for a minute. Toss in a good half cup of white wine/vermouth, if you're using it. 
• Add all the kale along with maybe a quarter teaspoon salt. Toss in your optional parmesan rind or parmesan. 
• Add enough water or stock to cover the kale (if using bouillon, you can do what I do and keep adding it until the stock tastes strong enough, and you can always add more later). 
• Bring everything to a boil, cover and turn down the heat to simmer until the kale is pretty soft, which will take maybe 30 minutes. 
• Add the sausage or sausage substitute (along with liquid smoke, if you so desire). Let everything hang out together for as long as you want, periodically checking how tender the kale is. 
• It is totally up to you when it's a good texture and it tastes good. If you can't decide, 40 minutes is a good round number. 
• A few minutes before serving, add in the cannellini. Add a lot of black pepper, as much as you like. Taste everything for salt (if you used bouillon, add more if you think the broth is tasting too weak, remembering that bouillon has salt in it too). Add red pepper flakes to taste. Add another 2 tablespoons of olive oil, stir that in, and serve.