Kale with Moroccan Chickpea Soup (or Garbanzo Bean Soup)

Late winter soup. Very quick, easy and delicious.  This soup recipe makes 4 servings. For each serving, steam 1+cups of kale and mix in.

Make stock
1.5 cubes of vegetable bouillon
3 cups of water

Saute in a dutch oven or soup pot
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 carrot, grated
1 cup broccoli slaw
2 cloves garlic
1 medium onion, finely chopped

While this sautes, puree in Vita-mix or food processor
15 oz canned garbanzo beans (or chickpeas), drained and rinsed
1/3 cup tahini
1 cup of the vegetable stock
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Stir into the soup pot with the sauteed vegetables
Pureed mixture
Rest of the vegetable stock (about 2 cups)
1.5 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp thyme leaves, dried
.5 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 
1/2 to 3/4 tsp Ras el Hanout
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp cried chopped parsely 

Cook 5 minutes or so, until heated through.

For each serving, ateam
1+ cups of kale, ripped to bite size pieces

Serve 
Put steamed kale in bottom of soup bowl, and add 1 serving of the soup. Mix up. 
Can garnish with toasted sesame seeds, or nuts.

Rated a 4.6 on the Kale Scale.

Ham 'n' Beans ' n' Kale

The weather has finally relented for a day making the use of the stove reasonable. Lately, it's been toooooo hot!  I've had a slab of ham steak vacuum packed for a month and finally, I could use it today. This is also, another version of use for the Lemony Garbanzo Beans I made yesterday.  This turned out to be delicious!  Yum!

Saute
1/4 cup onion
3 oz of ham steak (already cooked, boneless, Smithfield), cubed

Add and continue at a bit lower temperature
1 serving of the Lemony Garbanzo Beans (see yesterday for the recipe)
1/4 cup nonfat milk
 
Add, wilt as desired
1.25 cups kale, ripped to bite-size pieces
1.5 Tbsp white wine
1/2 tsp black pepper 

Serve with 
2 Tbsp of finely chopped dry roasted unsalted almonds

Enjoy!

Rated a 4.65 on the Kale Scale 

Kale with Dressed Garbanzo Beans and Peach

This was an odd combination to start with, but ended up being pretty tasty!  I had made "Lemony Garbanzo Beans" earlier in the day with a recipe from the Nutrition Action Health Newsletter. This recipe I will present first and then the kale salad.


Lemony Garbanzo Beans

• Make the dressing with 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice, 2 Tbsp Tahini, and 2 Tbsp plain non-fat yogurt.
• Add herbs of your choosing. I used 2 tsp fresh chopped chives.
• The actual recipe called for 2 Tbsp of olive oil, but I left that out.
• Mix the dressing with a drained 15 oz can Garbanzo Beans
• Makes 3 servings

 Kale Salad with Dressed Garbanzo Beans and Peach

• Mix together in a big bowl and then serve:
• 1 serving of Lemony Garbanzo Beans
• 1.5 cups kale, cut in smaller than bite-size pieces
• 1 peach, cut up with skin left on
• 1 Tbsp of Cindy's Kitchen Pomegranate Vinaigrette (oil-free)
• Top with 2 Tbsp of chopped fine toasted, no salt almonds 

 Rated a 4.59 on the Kale Scale.

Spiced Tofu &Chickpeas on Kale

I got this from Eating Well magazine, and proceeded to make some variations.  Spicy, and tasty.Seems like a bunch of messing around to get to the end product, but the result was worth it!
The recipe here, serves 4.

Combine, mix up in a big bowl
3.5 tsp paprika (sweet, hot or mixed)
3.5 ground cumin
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground pepper
1/4 tsp salt

Set aside 2.5 tsp of the spice mix

Mix into the rest of spices
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp olive oil

Add to spice mix, stir up, leave sit for 10-15 minutes or so
1 brick of tofu - 14 oz, drained and cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1 can (15 oz) - chickpeas, rinsed and drained

Spread tofu and chickpeas on greased baking sheet
Roast in 450 F oven for 20 minutes.
Stir once half-way.

While tofu and chickpeas are roasting, put the set aside spices into the big bowl and mix it up with
3 Tbsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp olive oil

Add 1 big bunch kale, ripped to bite size pieces
Massage kale in the spice, juice, oil mixture.  Kale will reduce in size as a result.

Plate the kale - divvy up for 1 serving (about 2.25 cups each)

Add to plated kale:
10 CastelVetrano olives, halved
1 red pear, cut up
1 Tbsp pumpkin seeds, toasted 

Add 3/4 cup of the tofu and chickpea mixture on top of the kale bed.

Serve and enjoy!

Rated a 4.59 on the Kale Scale. 

Coco-Curry Kale

The flavors combined in a pleasant, mild, and yummy way.

½ tsp coconut oil
¼ C onion,chopped.
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ C red cabbage, chopped
½ C canned garbanzo beans
1 large radish, sliced
¼ C celery, chopped
1.5 oz box raisins
Up to ¼ tsp cinnamon
Up to ¼ tsp nutmeg
Up to ½ tsp curry powder
1/3 C coconut milk, lite
1.5 T white wine
1-1 ¼ C stuffed with Kale leaves ripped up to bite size

• Heat oil and sauté onion, garlic and cabbage; when limp or lightly browned
• Add and continue sauté, garbanzo beans, for 1-2 mins.
• Add and continue sauté, raisins, radish and celery, for 1-2 mins.
• Add spices and stir up.
• Add coconut milk and white wine and turn down to simmer with lid off, stirring. Add more liquid, if needed.
• Top with kale, cover and simmer until kale is wilted to your desire.
• Serve and enjoy.

Toasted almonds, optional with this recipe. I chose to be almond free tonight. This turned out to be pretty tasty. The raisins and spice undertones in the sauce, were delicious.

Rated a 4.45 on the Kale Scale.

Garbanzo Kale

2 T sliced almonds, toasted
Spritz, lemon juice
½ tsp butter, divided
2 egg whites, scrambled and chopped to bits
Ground pepper, to taste
Mrs Dash, to taste
Turmeric, ¼ tsp
¼ C onion, chopped.
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ C red cabbage, chopped
½ C canned garbanzo beans
1 small orange, peel and chopped
5 grape tomatoes, halved
65 grams Kale leaves, ripped to bite size pieces
1.5 oz white wine

• Toast almonds, dry. And spritz with lemon juice at the end. Set aside.
• Scramble the egg whites ¼ tsp butter. Add pepper, Mrs Dash and tumeric to the eggs. As the eggs harden up, use spatula to cut up in to small pieces.
• Saute the onion in ¼ tsp butter.
• Follow quickly adding red cabbage and garbanzo beans, continue to saute.
• Add, and continue sauté tomatoes and orange.
• Add Kale, and the white wine.
• Cover, simmer until kale is wilted to your desire.
• Serve with toasted almonds on top.

Considering the caloric intake from yesterday’s recipe (Savory Fruited Kale), I got out my measuring spoons and scale and tried to scale back (no pun intended). The garbanzos were nicely soft, verging on mushable. The orange added a nice hint of sweet that paired well with the vegetables, including the kale. I measured the kale because it was more than a cup, but I couldn’t put it back after ripped and preserved for a day, already.

Rated a 3.9 on the Kale Scale