Caldo Verde-Style soup

This soup is inspired by Primavera Pub’s soup of the day, a hearty fare with a bean base, sausage, and thin-cut cabbage and kale. My version uses kielbasa instead of Portuguese sausage and adds some cheese rinds for an Italian flare.

Ingridients:

• 1 cup dried navy/great northern/canneli beans

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 4 cloves garlic

• Carrots or celery, chopped (or both!)

• 2 bay leaves

• dried thyme or rosemary

• cheese rinds (I use frozen)

• 2 tablespoons Better than Boullion chicken concentrate

• Kielbasa

• Chiffonade kale

• Thin sliced green cabbage

Procedure

• Soak beans overnight, changing water often. Cook in pressure cooker with a little bit of salt until very soft (around 20 minutes high pressure in instant pot, then I leave them there for a while before opening)

• In a large pot, saute onion, garlic, carrot and/or celery. Add in bay leaves and other dried herbs

• Add beans, then add water to submerge (more water is thinner soup)

• Flavor stock with the chicken concentrate, and let it bring to a boil

• Turn off heat. Blitz the soup with a hand blender to melt some of the beans.

• Turn heat back on. Add cabbage and cheese rinds.

• When cabbage is soft, add kielbasa and cook for another 5 minutes (just to warm)

• Turn off the heat, then stir in kale. Since it is cut thin it should cook immediately. Do not close the pot lid again at this stage, as the kale will brown.

• Adjust salt and pepper to taste.