Harmony Kitchen

Jan 17, 2025 Recipe of the Week

This week, I was looking for recipes that use storage veggies as well as veggies and meats from our freezer.  I came upon a few versions of Portuguese Potato, Kale and Sausage soup and have tweaked it to use items we have available from our farm in the dead of winter.  We really loved it and hope you will too.  

We had small bowls of soup with crusty bread (Simply Leavened Sourdough would be awesome!), chutney and cheese. This recipe made eight small servings. If you choose to have a larger main course serving, this recipe would make four larger bowls.

This soup is a two-step process. The first step is making the broth. The second step is making the soup itself. Good news: you’ll make enough broth to make this soup and a different one on another day.  

You can either keep the extra broth in the fridge and use it later this week or pop it in the freezer for later on. Parmesan broth is great for making potato and roasted garlic soup, French onion soup, or a simple tortellini in Parmesan broth soup. It’s also great as a base in risotto. Since it takes some time to make the broth, I decided to make four batches all at once and freeze it so that I have most of my prep done next time.

Don’t feel like making broth?  No problem, use veggie or meat stock from your freezer or cupboard, it will still be delicious!

Pantry items: Peppercorns. Bay leaves. White wine. Extra-virgin olive oil. One medium yellow onion Balsamic vinegar

Method

The broth is simple, but it takes a couple of hours so it’s a good recipe to make on a day when you happen to be home doing a few other things.

First of all, gather your ingredients and equipment.

You’ll need:

• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 pound of Parmesan rinds
• One cup of white wine (if you happen to have some, if not, you can use a little cognac or brandy or skip it all together)
• Two to four cloves of garlic, lightly crushed, but with the skins on
• Some peppercorns, about a teaspoon
• One bay leaf
• A bit of thyme or parsley stems if you happen to have them on hand.

Add a few tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil to the bottom of your stock pot and warm it up to medium. Add your crushed garlic cloves, peppercorns, bay leaves, and any other aromatic herbs that you have on hand. Saute this gently until the garlic is fragrant and sweet, being careful not to burn it.

At this point, add the wine if you have some and cook for about five minutes until the alcohol smell has cooked off and the volume is reduced by half.

Then add 8 cups of water and your pound of Parmesan rinds.

From here on, your broth is pretty much on auto pilot. Bring it up to a simmer and stir it with a wooden or metal spoon from time to time to keep it from sticking to the sides and bottom of the pot. It takes about two hours for the Parmesan rind to cook down and dissolve into the broth. Once you’ve simmered your broth for about two hours and the liquid looks creamy and delicious, you’ll still have lots of solids left over.  

At this point, strain this solids out and wash the pot immediately. If you leave it, any Parmesan that has adhered to the pot will be almost impossible to clean; wash it right away and it’s not a problem.

Store the broth in the fridge or freezer for later or just keep right on trucking and make your hearty soup!

For the soup, it’s helpful to prep all of your ingredients before you start.

• For this recipe, we’re using fully cooked sausages, so feel free to use some that you cooked up the night before for dinner or start by cooking your sausages before chopping them for.this recipe (the recipe calls for half a pound of sausage so will have half a pound left over for breakfast, lunch or snacks another time). Cut your cooked sausages lengthwise into quarters and then slice in half inch slices.
• Chop one medium yellow onion.
• Peel and smash four medium garlic cloves, then finely chop them.
• Wash and cut 1 pound of red potatoes. Cut off any bruised or damaged parts and dispose of any potatoes that have any green tinge to them whatsoever (they’ll make the soup bitter)
• Leave your kale on the counter or in the sink of cold water to thaw and then very finely chop it.

Start by adding about 3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil to your soup pot. In this, sauté your chopped sausage until it’s picked up a little bit of colour, about 5 minutes.

Add your onion and garlic and continue to cook over medium heat until they’ve picked up a little bit of color, another five minutes.

Then add your potatoes and stir until they’re coated with the fat then add 4 cups of Parmesan broth, two bay leaves and 3 cups of water. Bring this to a simmer over medium high heat, then reduce to medium low and simmer uncovered until the potatoes are tender, about 10 or 15 minutes.

Once potatoes are tender, remove your bay leaves and use an immersion blender (or a potato masher) to partially blend the soup until the potatoes start to break up and thicken the broth a little bit. Leave some of the potatoes  intact for a little bit of texture.

Finally, add your kale and cook for about five minutes until the kale is heated through and has softened a little bit.

Taste your soup and season with salt and pepper and about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar.

Serve the soup with a few extra drops of balsamic vinegar and a little drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.

Time Savers, Storage Tips and Spin off Recipes

• Consider making extra Parmesan broth and freezing it as the liquid for risotto or a base for French onion or potato soup.
• This recipe only uses half a pack of sausages; the extras can be used in spaghetti sauce, pizza toppings or fried up in a potato and sausage hash.
• This recipe only uses half a package of kale. The other half a package can be served as a side dish, sauteed with some garlic and olive oil and finished with some lemon or balsamic vinegar or turned into kale pesto or a kale, mozzarella and Parmesan filling for ravioli or tortellini.container so that you can take out individual portions later on.

Did you Know?

The American Gut Project demonstrated that those who consume 30 or more plants per week had better gut health than those who had less than 30 plants per week. Your weekly plant count can include herbs, spices, oils, basically anything that comes from a plant.

Garlic skins are full of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Including them when making broth provides you with bonus health benefits!

This Recipe’s Plant Count: 7 plus any additional aromatic herbs you added to your broth

Time Required: 2 hours for the broth (20 min active), 30 minutes for the soup

Number of Servings: Four large or eight small servings