Kale, Sweet Potato, and White Bean Soup

    I recently purchased a new cook book called Clean Start.  It is a vegan cookbook that has simple recipes categorize by season.  Since spring is almost here, I skipped right to the spring section and found this recipe for Kale, Sweet Potato, and White Bean Soup.  The book has many ingredients that are new to me.  For instance, this recipe called for mirin, which I had to google in order to figure out what it was and where I could find it in the grocery store.  Just so you know, mirin, is a Japanese cooking wine-supposedly a staple in Japanese cuisine.   Also, I knew what kale was but I had never used it before. I plan to try some more recipes from this book and slowly build my pantry up with new ingredients.


Kale, Sweet Potato, and White Bean Soup

Ingredients
1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 tbsp grated ginger root
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into cubes
1 can of great northern beans, drained and rinsed
3 tbsp mirin
1 bunch of kale, chopped
4 cups vegetable stock
Pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Method
1. In a large pot, saute onion and ginger over medium heat in the oil for about 3 minutes.
2. Add the celery, sweet potato, beans, and mirin.  Stir and then add kale and enough vegetable stock to cover all of the ingredients.  (I added a bit of water to my mix since I had a lot of kale in the pot.)
3. Bring the soup to a boil and the reduce the heat, cover, and cook for about 30 minutes.
4. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

This recipe made 9 cups of soup.

The Taste Test
   I plan to bring this soup to work this week, but I had a bite and it was great!  I think the nutmeg really adds a nice unexpected flavor to this healthy soup.