Kale Soup with Spanish Chorizo

If you've ever had Kale then you know it's not the best tasting veggie. I've tried Kale chips, Kale in salads and it's only okay at best. My Kale Soup with Spanish Chorizo recipe actually makes Kale taste good and it's a great dish for those raining nights.

Ingredients:

1 - Large Onion, finely chopped

3 - Tbsp olive oil

3 - Large Potatoes (I used Rustic this time)

8 - Cups water

1/2 - Lb Spanish Chorizo, cut into slices

1 - Bunch of Kale, center ribs discarded and rough chopped leaves

Salt

Directions:

In a large soup pot, cook onion in olive oil over medium heat, stirring occasionally until translucent

Peel potatoes and cut into thin slices (they will be mashed up later). Add potatoes to pot with onion and cook for 5 minutes

Add water and a pinch of salt, simmer until potatoes are tender, about 15 - 25 minutes

Chop up the Kale, removing center ribs and rough chopping the leaves

Cook Chorizo in a large frying pan over medium heat. No need for any oil as the Chorizo will release some of it's own juices. Cook until nicely browned. Transfer to a paper towel and pat dry. At this point I'll rough cut them as I like smaller pieces of Chorizo in my soup.

Coarsely mash potatoes in pot with a potato masher but do not drain any liquid. Stir in Chorizo, simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in Kale and simmer until tender, 5 minutes add salt to taste.

Serve with a nice loaf of bread

Weekend of Appetizers 2

After seeing how successful my last Weekend of Appetizers post was, I thought I should make another. This weekend is inspired by Cheese. The first three recipes come from the Winter 2013 "All you need is cheese" magazine and the last item is what I tried to make with all the leftovers that I had.

Click on the links below to check out the recipes!

Mini lamb (turkey) meatballs with Feta

Asparagus and Brie wonton Tartlets



Ratatouille and Feta Pizza

Ratatouille

Ratatouille

After making my Ratatouille and Feta pizza the other night, I had all these leftover veggies so I decided to try and make something out of them. Basically it's just all the veggies sliced up, layered and then I used the shallot sauce from Asparagus and Brie wonton tartlets to try and give it a little flavor. I'm going to be completely honest here... It wasn't very good but not everything turned out amazing. I'll do some research and find a better Ratatouille recipe, something with some real flavor. If you have any comments, please post them below.

Ingredients:

Carrots
Potato
Eggplant
Zucchini
Mushroom
1/3 - Cup Chicken broth
1 - Shallot, chopped
2 - Cloves garlic, chopped
1 - Tbsp Sherry vinegar



Directions:

Thinly slice the first 5 ingredients and then layer alternating in a oven safe dish

In a sauce pan cook shallots for 2 minutes



Deglaze with broth and reduce by half



Add Sherry vinegar and reduce once again



Pour mixture over the arranged veggies. Add in some more chicken broth

Bake in the oven at 375 for 30 - 40 minutes

Ratatouillve and Feta Pizza

This is a veggie loaded pizza that uses something that I don't often cook with, Eggplant. I used too much rosemary in my sauce but besides that it was something different to serve that's pretty healthy too.



Ingredients:

3 - Naan Bread
1 - Egg
1/4 - Cup of milk
2 - Tbsp tomato paste
1 - Tbsp rosemary (reduced from 2 Tbsp)
1 - Red Onion, thinly sliced
2 - Zucchini, thinly sliced
4 - Plum tomatoes
1 - Cup eggplant, peeled, and finely diced
7 - Oz of Feta, crumbled
Ground Pepper



Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Beat egg with milk, tomato paste and rosemary

Place naan bread on a baking sheet

 (I don't even bother with pizza crusts anymore, I always make my pizza's on naan bread)

Spread sauce evenly on top

top with red onion

Zucchini

Tomato

Egg plant

Feta and then sprinkle with pepper

Cook in oven with 10 - 15 minutes

Chop into pieces and serve

Asparagus Brie Wonton Tartlets

These things are pretty amazing and the sherry vinegar with chicken broth gives great flavor to the chopped shallots.

Ingredients:

24 - Wonton wrappers

2 - Tbsp butter, divided

24 - Asparagus spears, cut into 1 inch lengths

1 - Shallot, chopped

1/4 - Cup chicken broth (or white wine)

1 - Tbsp sherry vinegar

4 - oz Brie, sliced

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Brush wonton wrappers with 1 1/2 tbsp melted butter and press 2 wrappers into each mould of a muffin pan (I only did one and they turned out okay but two might be a little better)

In a sauce pan, melt the remaining butter on medium heat and asparagus for 2 minutes (photo not shown) Then move to a bowl.



 in the same sauce pan cook shallots for 2 minutes

Deglaze with broth and reduce by half

Add Sherry vinegar and reduce once again

Season with salt and pepper then pour over asparagus

Cut brie in to slices

Divide asparagus and brie among the muffin moulds lined with wonton wrappers

Bake on bottom oven rack for 15 minutes or until wonton wrappers are golden brown

Plate and serve