White Bean and Kale Soup

Oh San Francisco. Legit you guys, Karl the Fog has been out and about this entire month. I have been longing for the warm summer nights I used to have in Sacramento. I've been lusting after the rivers and lakes my friends have spent their whole summer at, and here I'm like...

I've never been good with weather. I usually end up wearing flip flops when it's 50 degrees out and a sweater when it's 75 degrees out. I check the weather sporadically, but I have learned that living in San Francisco means that you just basically always have to wear a jacket. Lucky for me, my apartment heats up pretty quickly when I cook so I was nice and toasty when I made this soup. I opened my window to get some fresh air, put the good ol' Sonos on, and started blasting Third Eye Blind. I was on my way to a good night until I caught a glimpse of a man staring up at my apartment in disbelief and realized I was singing louder than I thought. *noted, third floor sounds still travel to street

When Kiana and I decided to have a wine night and cook, we decided we needed something warm and cozy. I haven't made soup in a while so we landed on a recipe done by Cooking Classy. Classy Cooking isn't really what we were going for last night (more like eat and drink wine), but if you wish to see the original recipe, you can find it here.

My friend Carly was also over, so I kept the sausage separate because she doesn't eat red meat. If I had cooked it in the same pot as the veggies, I think that could've added some more depth to the soup, but it was good added after the fact too. The soup was hearty and filling but also tasted light and fresh at the same time. Does that even make sense? 

I was a dodo bird and didn't save any of my photos because I was distracted by a woman walking a pig in a pink sweater on a leash down my street. When Carly first said, "Look! A pig!" I didn't think anything of it because I'd had a glass of wine was distracted by cooking, but then I thought about it, and was like, "Wait, what?" Kiana and I literally ran to my window, and there it was - just a casual jog down the street with a pig on a leash. Franklin Street never ceases to amaze me sometimes.

• Ingredients:
• 
  
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 12 oz sausage of your choice - the original recipe calls for it to be sliced, but I took the casing off and cooked it loose 

• 1 1/2 cups chopped carrots (about 3)

• 1 1/3 cups chopped yellow onion (1 medium)

• 1 cup chopped celery (2 stalks)

• 4 cloves garlic , minced

• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

• 2 cups water

• 1 tablespoon dried parsley

• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary , crushed

• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

• 1 bunch of Dinosaur Kale, thick ribs removed, and chopped 

• 2 (14.5 oz) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

Directions:

1. 1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add carrots, onion, and celery and sauté for about 3-5 minutes (wait until the onion is translucent but doesn't start to brown). Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute longer. 
   
   
   2. Stir in chicken broth, water, parsley, rosemary, oregano and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and allow to gently boil 10 minutes. 
   
   
   3. While the soup is boiling, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan. Add sausage and cook until slightly browned, tossing occasionally, about 5-7 minutes. Remove sausage and drain sausage on a plate lined with paper towels and set aside.
   
   
   4. Add kale and allow to boil 10 minutes longer until kale and veggies are tender. 
   
   
   3. Stir in cooked sausage and cannellini beans (you can add more broth at this point if your liquid has burned off).