What We Ate Wednesday--Kale and Butterbean Soup with Rosemary and Parmesan

Hello lovelies! This is another soup adapted from Fast Days and Feast Days by Elly Pear. Her recipe called for Swiss chard, fresh rosemary and sherry vinegar--none of which I had. But I did have kale (I always have kale!) and dried rosemary on hand. The recipe called for the zest of a lemon but sherry vinegar and I was like "Hmmm....you need a boost of something acidic and I don't have any sherry vinegar. I wonder what I can do with this lemon I just zested?"

And so the adaptation was born. This was really good and fairly quick to make after a long day at work. I also added more vegetable stock than the recipe called for as it wasn't soupy enough.

My recipe for vegan Parmesan is quick and easy to make up...but if you don't have the time you could always use some Good Carma which is made locally by some friends of ours.

Kale and Butterbean Soup with Rosemary and Parmesan

1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
1 tin of butterbeans, drained and rinsed
100g kale (3 big handfuls?) de-stemmed and torn into pieces
750ml (3 cups) hot vegetable stock
zest of one lemon
juice of half a lemon

1. Cook the onion and carrot in a splash of water until softened. Then add the garlic and cook one more minute.
2. Add the rosemary and chilli flakes and stir to coat the onion mixture and then add the butterbeans and the hot vegetable stock and bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
3. While to soup is simmering make your Parmesan.

Parmesan
3 TB ground almonds
3 TB nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Blend until combined. I use a little food chopper/spice grinder.

4. After soup has simmered for 15 minutes, add the kale and increase the heat and keep stirring until the kale has wilted. Then add the zest and lemon juice.
5. Serve topped with Parmesan. 

This was really good--the sharpness of the lemon contrasted well with the earthiness of the rosemary and kale. The Parmesan really added a flavour pop. This was delicious and made in under 30 minutes. Perfect for after a  hard day at work.