Preserving the Bounty: Kale and Potato Freezer Soup

As much as I wish it were hot peppers, our garden has been producing at least one vegetable with abundance and consistency: a trendy brassica known as kale. We've been cutting bagfuls of kale every other day it seems with no let up in sight. I enjoy kale and it's very good for you, so I'm not going to complain, but I was starting to run out of ways to prepare it: after several batches of kale chips, plenty of smoothies and stir-fries and salads, we still had several bags languishing. Kale is a terrible thing to waste, so the search began, Is there any way to preserve Kale for future use?

You can only can greens if you have a pressure cooker, so that was out. I was about to attempt freezing the individual greens when I remembered cabbage soup. My traditional m.o. when it comes to cabbage soup is to make a -huge- batch in the fall and freeze as many leftovers as possible. The result is lunches of cabbage soup all winter long. It occurred to me that something equally delicious might be created with kale.

And I was right! We were able to use up quite a bit of kale and preserve it for down the road when the greens parade has ended for our garden...and the soup is quite tasty too.

Kale and Potato Freezer Soup

inspired by Once A Month Meals

[What You Need]

Olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1 onion

5 cups vegetable broth

4 cups chopped red potatoes

1 cup Greek yogurt

1 teaspoon spicy brown mustard

1 tablespoon of oregano

1 cup milk

7 tightly packed cups of shredded kale

[What To Do]

1. Chop garlic and set it aside to rest.
2. Heat oil in a large stock pot and add chopped onion. Saute until tender and add garlic.
3. Add broth, potatoes, mustard, oregano, and yogurt. Bring to a boil and then allow to simmer until potatoes are cooked through.
4. Carefully blend about half the soup.
5. Stir in milk and kale. Allow to cook just a little while longer until the kale is slightly wilted.