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Overloading the Machine

Potato Kale Soup

Extra-virgin olive oil
1 small red or yellow onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
Pinch of red chile flakes
1 lb. Yukon gold or red potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces
6 cups vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
1 bunch kale, washed, stems discarded, leaves finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Pour enough olive oil into a large soup pot to cover the bottom. Over medium heat cook the onion, garlic, and chile flakes for several minutes, until the onion begins to soften, about 10 minutes. Add the potatoes, broth, and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Add the kale, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until the kale is tender and the potatoes are soft, about 10-12 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. If a smoother texture is desired, blend with an immersion blender. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

"Speak, thou vast and venerable head," muttered Ahab, "which, though ungarnished with a beard, yet here and there lookest hoary with mosses; speak, mighty head, and tell us the secret thing that is in thee. Of all divers, thou has dived the deepest. That head upon which the upper sun now gleams has moved amid the world's foundations. Where unrecorded names and navies rust, and untold hopes and anchors rot; where in her murderous hold this frigate earth is ballasted with bones of millions of the drowned; there, in that awful water-land, there was thy most familiar home. Thou hast been where bell or diver never went; has slept by many a sailer's side, where sleepless mothers would give their lives to lay them down. Thou saw'st the locked lovers when leaping from their flaming ship; heart to heart they sank beneath the exulting wave; true to each other, when heaven seemed false to them. Thou saw'st the murdered mate when tossed by pirates from the midnight deck; for hours he fell into the deeper midnight of the insatiate maw; and his murderers still sailed on unharmed -- while swift lightnings shivered the neighboring ship that would have borne a righteous husband to outstretched, longing arms. O head! thou has seen enough to split the planets and make an infidel of Abraham, and not one syllable is thine!"

-- H. Melville, "Moby Dick"

This page was last modified on 2011 December 20.