Spicy Kale Soup with Roasted Pepper and Tomato

Cookingontheweekends.com
Serves 3-4
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Ingredients

• olive oil for the pan
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped red onion
• 1 medium-sized roughly chopped garlic cloves roots and stems removed
• 3/4 cups peeled and roughly chopped potatoes
• 1/4 cup marinated and drained sun-dried tomatoes divided
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped roasted pepper (here's how to roast a pepper)
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 large bunch kale washed, dried, center stems removed and roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoons granulated sugar
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• extra virgin olive oil​

Preparation​

1. Coat a large stock pot with olive oil and place it over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is soft and beginning to brown, about 7 minutes.
   
2. Add the potato, 1/2 of the sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red pepper, paprika, cayenne, and the kale. Cook this mixture until the kale has wilted. All of the ingredients should be starting to brown and to sticking to the bottom of the pan -- it will take about 10 minutes. Then deglaze the pan with the sherry. Use a straight edged, wooden spatula to scrape any bits of food off the bottom of the pan and back into the mixture.
   
3. Once the sherry has evaporated completely, add the vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, cover the pot, and then reduce to a very low simmer. Simmer the soup for about 30 minutes. (At this point the potatoes should be very tender.)
   
4. Pour the soup into a blender and blend on high until it's completely smooth. (This particular soup is much better blended this way than with an immersion blender, because kale can be quite fibrous. Please note that when you blend hot liquids in the blender, you have to hold down the lid very, very firmly! If you don't do this, the hot liquid, the vibration, and the steam will force the lid off! Also, use a folded towel to protect your hands from the possibility of hot liquid seeping out of the lid during blending. If this makes you at all nervous, let the soup cool to room temperature, and then blend.)
   
5. Once the soup blended, return it to the stock pot. Add the vinegar and sugar and season very generously to taste with salt and pepper.
   
6. Drizzle a bit of the extra virgin olive oil over each served bowl of soup and top each one with a few of the remaining sun-dried tomatoes.