Mushroom and Kale Soup

Welcome to this week’s market meal: Mushroom and Kale soup. Our primary vendor is again Produce with Purpose out of the Revolution Market. This will be the case through most of the winter. I haven’t had a chance to make it to any of the other winter markets in the area yet. The only ingredient I did not purchase through this vendor is my dried shiitake mushrooms, which can be ordered through amazon or found at the grocery store.

This is served in the picture with a small piece of Publican Bread Co. 's ciabatta, which I toasted in some garlic and herb butter from Nordic Creamery to dip in the soup. The crust picks up the broth beautifully.

Prep Time: 10 Minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour | Serves: 6

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Ingredients:

• 1/2 lbs mixed fresh mushrooms
• 20g dried shiitake mushrooms
• 250g water
• 7 Strips of Cherrywood Smoked Bacon
• 50g butter
• ½ large onion, diced
• 4 medium russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 2 tbs AP flour
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup whole milk
• 5 large leaves of dinosaur kale, stripped and chopped​

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1. Start by soaking your dried shiitake mushrooms in 250 grams of boiling water. Allow this to work while you prepare the rest of your ingredients.
   
2. Preheat a large dutch oven at medium heat and chop your bacon into your preferred bacon bit size. This is going to look like a lot of bacon. It probably will be. If you don’t use it all as garnish, save it for other uses. Render it out as much as you can. If the bottom of your part stars to gather a lot of fond, move your bacon to another pan. The bacon can take as much as twenty minutes to render, stirring frequently. Use the downtime to prep veggies.
   
3. Dice your onion, and prep your mushrooms while your bacon renders. To prepare the mushrooms, cut them in half before slicing thinly. The shiitakes should now be rehydrated. These can be chopped up and combined with the other mushrooms. Save the leftover stock.
   
4.  Once the bacon is removed,add your diced onion to the pan with 50g butter. Allow to soften for about five minutes before adding your chopped mushrooms to the pan to render and cook.
   
5. Cook your mushrooms until they begin to darken and release their water. Add potatoes and 2 tbs flour. Mix and cook for about 3 minutes to allow the raw flour taste to cook out. Season with salt at this step. 
   
6. Add your mushroom stock and chicken stock to the pot. Allow to boil for about twenty minutes. Once your potatoes have softened, ladle about 2 to 3 cups of your mixture into a high sided container. Using an immersion blender (or a normal blender), blend the mixture until smooth. This will help thicken the soup.
   
7. Return to the pot. At the same time, add your whole milk. Stir to combine. Allow to warm through while you prepare your kale. This is also a good time to adjust the seasoning before adding the kale. Once the kale is chopped, drop it into the soup and allow to simmer for about 3 minutes.
   
8. Serve with your bacon bits, mozzarella, and desired crunchy thing to taste.
   

Tips:

• You can substitute the chicken stock for a store bought veggie stock to make the recipe fully vegetarian.
  
• If you want to bulk it up a little more, we recommend fresh corn kernels added at the same time as the kale, or even beans! Play around and let us know what you come up with on your own.
  
• Store in the refrigerator for three days or freeze for as much as six months.