White Bean and Sausage Soup with Kale Microgreens

Why kale works here

Kale microgreens have a sturdier leaf than the other brassicas we grow, which makes them the one to reach for when the food is hot. Stirred in off the heat they stay recognisably a leaf instead of dissolving, and they bring a mineral sweetness that a long-simmered bean soup badly needs at the end.

Ingredients

• •1 tbsp olive oil
• •1 lb Italian or smoked sausage, sliced
• •1 onion, diced
• •2 carrots, diced
• •2 stalks celery, diced
• •3 cloves garlic, minced
• •2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
• •4 cups chicken stock
• •1 bay leaf
• •1 sprig rosemary
• •2 large handfuls of kale microgreens
• •Salt, pepper, and olive oil to finish
• •Parmesan rind, if you have one

Method

1. Brown the sausage in the oil in a heavy pot over medium-high heat. Get real colour on it, then lift it out and set it aside.
2. Drop the heat to medium. Cook the onion, carrot and celery in the sausage fat for 8 minutes until soft but not coloured. Add the garlic for the last minute.
3. Return the sausage, add the beans, stock, bay leaf, rosemary and the parmesan rind if using. Bring to a simmer.
4. Simmer gently for 20 minutes. For a thicker soup, mash about a cup of the beans against the side of the pot with a spoon.
5. Fish out the bay leaf, rosemary stalk and rind. Taste and season – bean soup takes more salt than you expect.
6. Take the pot OFF the heat, wait a minute, then stir in the kale microgreens. They will wilt slightly and stay intact.
7. Ladle into bowls, finish each with a thread of olive oil and cracked pepper.

Notes from the farm

• Off the heat is not optional. In a boiling pot the greens turn to slime in under a minute.
• Everything except the greens is better the next day. Add the microgreens to each bowl as you reheat it rather than to the whole pot.
• Pea shoots are the alternative if you want more sweetness and more crunch, but add those raw to each bowl instead.

Questions

Will kale microgreens survive in hot soup?

Better than any other variety we grow, and only if you add them off the heat. They will wilt a little and hold their shape. In an actively boiling pot they will not survive at all.

Can I use mature kale instead?

You can, but it needs 10 minutes of simmering rather than one minute off the heat, and you get the chew and the bitterness that the microgreen does not have. They are genuinely different ingredients rather than substitutes.

The other eight recipes

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