Kale is just so good for you.   A good challenge for everyone is to get more vegetables into your daily meals.  Try to get some green action in at every meal.  It’s a great way of getting so many vitamins and nutrients by eating a variety of vibrant colored vegetables.

Kale is packed full of iron, calcium, Vitamin A, Vitamin K  and Vitamin C.  Kale is a great source of calcium and full of antioxidants that protect against many types of cancer.

Sauteed kale is not appealing to a lot of individuals.  Combining kale with the savory taste of italian sausage is a total win!

This soup is easy to make and can be a lunch time staple.  The sausage and chicken broth really provide a satiating feeling.  And of course, the kale is snuck in there to add additional nutrition.

Ingredients:

1 pound italian sauage – (You can use either lose or links.  Both work)
2 slices of bacon – chopped into bite sized pieces
1 small onion – diced
2 cloves of garlic – minced finely
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 cups of peeled and diced potatoes (Use turnips if watching carb count)
2 to 3 cups of kale – peeled from the stem and torn into smaller pieces

Instructions:

Use a dutch oven or soup pot to make this recipe.  Start by browning the sausage in the container you’re going to use to make the soup.  Cook the sausage until it’s done and remove from the pot.   If using links, just cook them fully and slice them into bite sized pieces.

Add some butter or palm kernel oil and start cooking the bacon pieces until they get a crisp to them.  Then add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes.   The garlic goes in and cooks for 1 more minute.  Pour in the chicken broth and water and give everything a good stir.  This is the time to scrape the bottom and get a bit of extra good flavor into the soup.  Cover the pot and bring everything to a boil.

Once it’s boiling, add in the potatoes (or turnips), salt and red pepper flakes.  Cover the pot and bring it back up to a boil.  Then reduce the heat and  simmer for 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes, add in the kale.  The cover goes back on the pot and continue to simmer the soup for 10 more minutes.  Check your potatoes or turnips with the puncture of a fork.

Great to have for dinner or the next day as left overs.