White Bean + Kale Soup.

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What you’ll need:

-white beans (I prefer fresh beans but can use canned as well)
-carrot, white onion, celery
-zucchini
-olive oil
-kale
-2 garlic cloves
-fresh thyme
-fresh parsley
-2 bay leaves
-ground turmeric
-diced tomato (canned or tomato paste works also)
-salt/pepper
-lemon

Start by boiling the beans on medium heat. They take about an hour or so, but when they are finished I saved the water and used the bean broth as my base broth for the soup (instead of veggie or chicken broth). In a separate pan – sauté the diced onions, carrots and celery with olive oil on low heat. When the veggies look cooked, you can add minced garlic and diced kale to to the mix. Sauté the kale until it is soft. You can add this mixture of veggies to the bean water or chicken stalk- whichever you decide to use. Add zucchini, diced tomato or tomato paste, a couple sprigs of fresh thyme, bay leaves, turmeric (optional) fresh chopped parsley, salt/pepper (go easy because you can always add later to taste when all the flavors blend). Let the soup simmer- my beans weren’t finished cooking all the way through so I let them finish with all the added ingredients mixed in. Another option is to boil the kale separately and then adding to the bean water. Either way, it gets soft and doesn’t really taste like kale (brilliant for those that don’t prefer it)!

Season to taste, add a little lemon and enjoy!

Side note: .
I like to add crushed red pepper for a little spice. The best part about soup is that you can add anything… Dried oregano and dried parsley are also great alternatives in case don’t have fresh on hand! If you have time to boil your own beans make sure you soak the beans before use. If using canned there is no need to soak. If you have any questions shoot me an email.

Hope You Enjoy!

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{Fresh Coffee Cake…not newtritionsavvy} 😉

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sharon

{My beautiful Mama}

{My Sisters}

Friends! How was your Chritmas holiday?? We made it through! Mine was a two day filled family event. Christmas eve we spent the morning at my sisters for brunch and some quality time with my, mom, uncles, aunts, cousins and the friends we choose to call family. It was such a great day- the rain broke so we were able to enjoy the day without horrible weather. We celebrated with mimosas, an amazing vegetarian quiche (courtesy of my sister) and of course tamales (jalapeno and cheese for me) + rice and beans. What kind of Mexican holiday would it have been without that! They were sooooo yummy. It’s always a great time to spend with the family that lives so close and don’t see enough! I hope you are all enjoying the time off and preparation into the new year. Don’t forget, just because it’s a holiday doesn’t mean you get to be sluggish. Think ahead, you won’t have to work as hard come January 1. I’ll share more pictures from Christmas tomorrow….until then-  Happy Wednesday!