Vegetable Soup with Baby Kale and Meatballs

I took a couple of other recipes and came up with my own version. I started with this recipe for Rainbow Soup but this is what I did I chopped up 1 onion and 2 large garlic cloves, 3 celery and 2 carrots, a couple of handfuls of green beans and removed the stems from the baby kale my dd gave me. I had a couple of handfuls of that. So I sauteed in olive oil the onions, garlic, celery and carrots for a few mins. til the onion started to look opaque. Then I  added a 15 oz. can of chopped tomatoes and a quart of chicken broth the green beans and the kale and seasoned it and let it simmer while I made meatballs.

Meatballs, I started with my dd recipe but made it low carb by using almond flour and flax meal instead of bread crumbs and I omitted the cheese because I'm dairy free. I also omitted the nutmeg. I found out after I opened the packages that I didn't have ground beef, but elk. I forgot I had it a gift from my sil. So the meatballs are formed into small balls and baked in the oven at 350 for 20 mins. That's what I did and they tasted great. I then put them in the soup and continued to simmer just to blend flavors.

Normally I don't eat a lot of carrots on my low carb diet, but I figured a couple in a big pot of soup couldn't hurt that much and I wanted something sweet to counteract the kale. This kale raw tasted very strong. My dd got a big bag of it at Costco.

So the soup turned out good. I couldn't even tell there was kale in there. I tasted some and when it's cooked that strong taste goes away. So maybe I'll try some just sauteed with garlic. I think that is enough dark green leafy vegs. for this week, but next week I want to try some other recipes. I do feel that the frittata and soup are good ways to get in your greens.

One of the challenges from Healthy Green Kitchen's One Simple Change is eating more dark leafy greens. Here is her essay on greens. She has some cautions so it's worth a read.

Linda