Potato and Kale Soup (with a Portuguese flair)

Last night's dinner was out of one of my favorite crock-pot cookbooks "Slow Cooker Revolution" (publisher-The Editors at America's Test Kitchen).
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/slow-cooker-revolution-americas-test-kitchen-editors/1030632312?ean=9781933615691&itm=1&usri=slow+cooker+revolution

This was a good hearty little soup and the best part was I got to use the kale out of my garden.  Kale is such a wonder gift from God here in the Pacific Northwest.  It truly is a year-round garden gift that keeps on giving.

Almost all good things start with an onion and plenty of garlic.  This is no exception.

The recipe says to add 4 garlic cloves (minced).  I opted to use the entire head of garlic...and so glad I did.

For a quick tutorial on how to mince your onion and garlic easily, see my previous post: http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8722981618940340749#editor/target=post;postID=5291094346845203805

Place the garlic, 1 minced onion, 1 Tbs. olive oil, 1 Tbs. chili powder, 1 1/2tsp. fresh minced oregano and 1/2 tsp. minced canned chipotle chile in adobo (ok...I added more like a very healthy 1 tsp. chipotle but that's because I love flavor) in a microwave safe bowl.  My favorite is a glass 8 cup bowl from Pampered Chef.

The canned chipotle chile in adobo is a wonderful ingredient you can find in almost any grocery (or Mexican grocery) store.

I minced the chile and the oregano with my new favorite new cooking tool that I found at Williams-Sonoma
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/kuhn-rikon-herb-chopper/?pkey=ccooks-tools-kuhn-rikon

It's called the "Kuhn Rikon Herb Chopper"

Basically you just "rock" over whatever you want to mince.  Works great.

Microwave all that goodness for about 5 minutes, stirring about every minute or so.  This helps to "marry" these wonderful flavors and starts to soften the onion.  Now transfer this to your slow cooker.  I used the "slow cooker liners" that I have mentioned in an earlier posts.

They are wonderful.  They help to "seal" the crock-pot and clean up is soooo easy.  I almost always use these.

Add to the crock-pot 6 cups chicken broth, about 1 pound red potatoes (cut into 1/2" pieces) and kielbasa sausage.  The recipe called for "8 oz. kielbasa sausage" but I chose to use what was in my freezer, which was 14 oz. Hillshire Farm Turkey Kielbasa sausage that I cut in half and cut into 1/2" pieces.  Cover the crock pot and cook for about 4-6 hours on low (I let mine cook the full 6 hours).

Now you need to add about 8 oz. kale that has been cut into 1/4" ribbons.  I covered how to do this in a previous post:

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8722981618940340749#editor/target=post;postID=5291094346845203805

Cover and turn the crock pot on "high".  Let this cook for about 20-30 minutes until the kale is tender.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve each bowl with a little Parmesan cheese on top.

My husband really liked this one.  Point-wise it was a winner also:

Olive Oil: 4 pts.
Potatoes: 8 pts.
Turkey Kielbasa: 17 pts.

29/8.5 servings = 3.4 pts. per serving.
Add 1 pt (depending how much parm. cheese you put on there)

WINNER.