nutritional information

Per 1-cup serving:

  • Calories: 138
  • Protein: 4 g
  • Total Fat: 5 g
  • Saturated Fat: 1 g
  • Carbohydrates: 20 g
  • Cholesterol: 0 mg
  • Sodium: 103 mg
  • Fiber: 3 g
  • Sugar: 4 g
Vegan

Garlic and Kale Soup

Garlic and Kale Soup

Serves 6

This brothy soup provides heart-healthful nutrition on many levels: kale and garlic are good for the cardiovascular system; wheat berries are high in fiber; and shiitake mushrooms contain eritadenine, an amino acid that speeds up processing of cholesterol in the liver. Once the wheat berries have been presoaked, the soup can be ready in under an hour.
  • ½ cup wheat berries
  • 2 Tbs. olive oil
  • 3.5 oz. shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced (1 cup)
  • 10 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
  • ¼ cup brown rice vinegar
  • 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
  • 1 bunch kale (10 oz.), stemmed and coarsely chopped

1. Soak wheat berries in large bowl of cold water overnight.

2. Heat oil in 2-qt. saucepan over medium heat. Add mushrooms, and season with salt, if desired. Sauté mushrooms 10 minutes, or until beginning to brown. Add garlic, and sauté 2 minutes more. Stir in vinegar; simmer until vinegar is almost evaporated, stirring to scrape up browned bits from pan.

3. Drain wheat berries, and add to mushroom mixture with vegetable broth and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 20 minutes. Add kale, and cook 10 to 20 minutes more, or until kale is tender. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.

February 2010 p.36

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comments

Fabulous soup! It has become a family favorite. We throw the kale in the bowl and ladle hot soup over the top to keep the texture nice and crunchy. The kids devour kale this way, so buy lots extra. Also, since we are gluten free, we sub whole GF oat berries which make the soup extra thick and rich! In fact the kids love this soup the next day when the oat berries have absorbed and thickened nearly all the broth- yes, we too need to add more liquid to the recipe. Delicious and fast soup. Whats not to love?

DFamily - 2013-04-30 17:37:46

I love kale in all forms and this recipe turned out great! I also like this kale soup recipe: http://messnkitchn.blogspot.com/2013/03/veggie-noodle-soup-vegan.html

MessnKitchn - 2013-03-20 19:56:37

This is a very good and very healthy soup. It's not my favorite, but good enough to make again. I made it as written, but I like one commenter's idea of adding rosemary. May try that next time. I also agreed with another commenter that there wasn't enough broth, but I was very generous with the kale so I probably threw the proportions off. I added an extra cup of water to compensate. Another big plus for this soup: very little prep time. I buy prepped kale, so all I had to do was peel and slice the garlic. And most of the cooking time is unattended simmering, which allowed me to deal with my kids while I was cooking.

Jill - 2013-03-04 04:35:37

My wife and both enjoyed this soup. I rather enjoy this as an accompaniment with Avocado-spinach panini, by itself it is not to filling.

Robert Johnson - 2013-03-04 01:54:16

Delicious. I made it exactly as written. My husband and I both loved it. However, if making as the main meal, I would say this only serves three modest portions.

Lauren Stewart - 2013-03-01 16:48:41

I wish their were more low fat or nonfat recipes included in the magazine and on your website. My wife and I are vegetarians with a maximum of 3 grams of fat per recipe.

Gene Heintz - 2013-02-25 00:50:58

This a wonderful soup AS WRITTEN. Worth finding the berries and using all the vinegar (which adds a good flavor). Yes, kale is an acquired taste - NOT spinach, although I guess one could substitute. Shitakes are an earthly flavor - marvelous. Adding more broth washes out the blended flavors. We love this soup!

Nanooky - 2013-02-22 18:20:59

This is souper! I use Better Than Bouillon Mushroom Base, barley instead of wheat berries, and throw in a few milliliters of liquid smoke. Amazing! However, if vegan the mushroom base does contain some butter.

Amanda - 2013-02-14 20:50:14

The 4 cups of broth, plus the cup of water added with the wheat berry mix, doesn't seem to make very much broth. Did anyone else have trouble with this?

Angutaataa - 2013-02-07 00:18:58

A tasty nutritious alternative to chicken soup on sick days. Substituted white beans for wheat berries. Next time, I will be sure to fully brown the garlic and mushrooms and to reduce the vinegar more thoroughly. I also added about 3/4 tbspn salt.

Summer M. - 2013-01-28 08:33:50

Used lentils instead of wheat berries. Delish!

Rose - 2013-01-13 00:00:39

Delicious! I swapped cooked brown rice for the wheat berries and apple cider vinegar for the rice vinegar. I hope to keep this on hand through much of the winter.

Jodi Patel - 2012-12-01 23:33:38

I was SO disappointed with this recipe!! It sounded very yummy to me, since I like all the ingredients, and the comments were so positive... But I almost hated it. You'd better be a real kale lover to enjoy it. And like many others, I think the amount of rice vinegar is too large.

Nathalie - 2012-11-26 23:08:08

This is a fantastic soup- has anyone tried freezing it?

Babs - 2012-10-06 13:53:45

I love this soup! Of course, I never have the exact ingredients, and I use far more mushrooms, several cups; mostly crimini, but some dried shitake. I don't have rice vinegar so I use dark balsamic vinegar (it gives the soup a nice rich flavor). And, I never have wheat berries (but I think they would be really good), so I use short-grain brown rice. Everything else is as in the recipe.

Karen - 2012-09-01 22:51:11