Leftovers soup

Ok. First of all. It's been one of those days. up at 3 am, work is work and I picked up some things at the store to make dinner.


Yes I needed that ok. Wait.


Ok better.

Incidentally. That's the 28 oz wineglass. We saw it at Crate and Barrel one day and Stephanie loves me enough to buy things for me that she knows are a terrible idea.

Ok. By the way. The bottle is GONE. Granted there was a generous glass in dinner (not documented tonight, but I will eventually because it's delicious and simple as well) and a generous glass to Matt, but the rest of it is a 28 oz wine glass to me.

ANYWAY.

Leftovers soup. This is what happens when it's Sunday and everyone has wilty veggies from the week before and it's time to improvise.


I bought two bundles of kale the week before and steph had some sprouting potatoes and some wilting spinach. I also had some very pathetic carrots and emo celery and onions on the verge of going off. Oh and a quarter pound of bacon that I'm pretty sure we last used in the french toast experiment. TIME TO DIE.

Chunked up the bacon into about thumbsized pieces. Fried those up while peeling and chopping up the carrots, onion and celery. When all the delicious is extracted (there is a puddle of grease and crispy bacon. I took off some of the grease and saved it. because I'm one of those people. leave enough grease to coat the bottom of the pan) let the onion join the party. then the celery after about three minutes. and then the carrots. add a little salt, stir and scrape that awesome fond in, and cover. Before you cover it, it looks like this!

Yeah. Oh baby. hello. How you doin.

Ok if yesterday, if alone, if single and halfway into the bottle of wine the way I am now? This would be my blushing bride and I would teach it the ways of the world. But thats not where we are right now. And there are many things to come.

WHILE you are being very patient and letting that all hang out in the pot at medium heat, you are being productive and peeling and cubing potatoes, about half an inch on each side. And then you toss those in the mess, WHICH, if properly treated, will have let loose all the delicious liquid of flavor. Seriously, this is how you should always make soup.

Then kale. I chop off the ends and cut the leaves into strips and then jam them on top of the craziness in the pot then cover.

It eventually shrinks down. Promise. Threw the spinach in there too.

now that's fairly thick. I added a couple of cups of water, about a quarter cup of chicken broth powder and a small can of tomato paste. And a little cream. cause. you know. It was there. Thicken or thin to taste. I like to thicken either with a slurry of flour and water or if you're really decadent about it, a mash of flour and butter. Which is not only delicious, but keeps your soup from lumping.


SOUP.

And it was delicious. The acidity of the tomatoes cuts that gross sandpaper tooth feeling spinach can give sometimes and the kale was a little wilty and sweet and good even for kale. And it really never fails - no matter what we have on hand,I always wind up with exactly a pot of soup - which feeds 6 and then provides generous leftovers for two for the next day for lunch.