Mushroom lentil kale soup

After a time a gal gets tired of seeing kale on her dinner plate the same old way: sautéed with garlic, beans and perhaps some chicken sausage. She tried boiling some and put in a frittata, which was a fine way to dispatch the kale CSA intake. Yet still.

A friend who has a CSA share at the same farm as moi, called at dinner time to ask: What to do with kale? Indeed, she has the same (generally happy) challenge having identically-harvested and delivered kale crop as I do. She was making soup, already made. I said: Boil some for five minutes, and throw in. 

Home on Yom Kippur, repenting and nursing a cold, I gathered strength to get off the couch and into the kitchen to make some soup, inspired by Melissa Clark’s mushroom soup with spinach. It’s the same technique, just different cast of characters. My soup: Leeks, shallots, maitake mushrooms, Puy lentils, kale and a potato, because why not? It’s October and that’s what my farm share produced: kale, potatoes, leeks. And I keep vegetable stock in the freezer for a nutritional and flavor boost in soup-making and sautéing. 

Ingredients:

Leek, white part, 1, sliced and diced

Shallot, 1, minced

Mushrooms, ~3 oz, cut up

Lentils, 1/2 c, picked over and rinsed

Vegetable stock, 3 c or part or all water

Tomato paste, 1+ t

Thyme

Cumin, 1 t

Bay leaf

Coriander, 1/2 t, optional (maybe not a great idea)

(Or go for strong flavor with chipotle in adobe!)

Kale, torn up and rinsed, just about 2-3 big leaves of the crinkly kale variety (can substitute spinach by adding at last 2 minutes of soup-cooking time)

Potato, scrubbed and cut into chunks

Directions:

1. Put a medium soup pot over medium-high heat and add 2 T olive oil, mushrooms and shallots, and cook for about 10 minutes until dry and perhaps a bit browned. 
2. Add tomato paste, thyme, and cumin and cook for about 1 minute. 
3. Add lentils and stir around for a bit. 
4. Stir in vegetable stock (or water), kale, potato, salt and pepper. 
5. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook gently for about 20 minutes until lentils and kale are softened. 

Serve sprinkled with nutritional yeast perhaps or a dollop of yogurt. Without the yogurt this recipe is vegan(!)

Source: New York Times Mushroom Spinach Soup

Variations: This recipe, like many soup recipes, is infinitely adaptable. Choose cooked beans over lentils and add later. Choose spinach over kale and add just for last 2 minutes of cooking. Any mushrooms you have on hand are good to use. Skip the leek if it’s not in your fridge and use more shallot. Here’s a bean soup with kale recipe using pre-cooked beans.

Savory and spicy Korean shrimp with grits or polenta, aka Gochugaru Shrimp

It seems every cuisine has its own peppers from Facing Heaven in Sichuan to chili powder for the south, to Gochugaru in Korean cuisine. That ground pepper spice makes for very flavorful sautéed shrimp. Here’s how:

Mix up garlic, gochugaru, celery seed, sesame oil, S&P. Toss shrimp in the spice mixture and sauté shrimp in butter. Then mix in fish sauce, lemon juice, a pinch of sugar and a bit more butter, cook a bit and serve over grits or polenta. Your taste buds will delight!

Ingredients:

Garlic, 3 cloves, finely grated

Gochugaru, 3/4 T

Celery seed, 1/2 t

Toasted sesame oil, 1 T

Kosher salt and pepper

Shrimp, 1/3 #, peeled and deveined

Butter, 2 T, divided

Fish sauce, 2 t

Lemon juice, 1 t

Sugar, a pinch

Cilantro, optional

Directions:

1. Put up polenta or grits. When done, mix in nutritional yeast or toasted seaweed (Korean: gim)
2. Defrost, peel and devein shrimp.
3. Mix together in medium bowl large enough to hold shrimp: sesame oil, garlic, gochugaru, celery seed, Kosher salt & pepper. 
4. Toss shrimp in spice mixture to coat. 
5. Place a sauté pan (I used nonstick) over high heat, add 1 T butter. When butter is hot and foam begins to subside, add shrimp and spread out. Cook for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes. Turn over with tongs and cook about 1 more minute.
6. Remove pan from heat and add fish sauce, lemon juice, sugar and 1 T butter. 
7. Over low heat, toss the shrimp to coat and cook for another 1-1/2 to 2 minutes. 
8. Serve shrimp over polenta or grits. Garnish with cilantro, if available. 

Source: Eric Kim, Gochugaru Shrimp from his debut cookbook Korean American