Creamy Potato and Kale Soup is a wonderful traditional Italian soup. People in the United States are starting to become familiar with this classic staple with a cream base. Traditionally in Italy, however, you might be surprised to know that there is usually very little cream in the soup.
This lovely soup takes full advantage of the early spring vegetables in the garden right now. In addition to the spring potatoes, young kale and spring onions add a ton of flavor.
If you keep it chunky, this is a very filling soup which can stand on its own as a meal, even for the hungriest member of your family.
Notes for this Recipe
This creamy potato and kale soup is great for using any smaller potatoes from your garden that aren’t quite suitable for recipes that call for large spuds. (Like this double stuffed potatoes recipe)
You can use either purple or green kale for this recipe.
Although I suggest below to peel the potatoes, know that if you are using small new or red potatoes, you totally don’t need to peel at all. Those potatoes have very thin skin and add to the flavor of this soup.
This soup can be served chunky style or blended and smooth. We love it chunky style when served as an entree for a super hearty meal. But it is nice to blend it when serving as an appetizer. Just use an immersion blender in the final stages of cooking. Once the kale has softened sufficiently, it will blend in nicely with the broth and potatoes.
Ingredients for Creamy Potato and Kale Soup
- 1/2 onion, peeled and diced
- Several spring onions, diced
- 2 diced celery stalks
- 2 minced garlic cloves
- T olive oil
- 2T white wine
- 3 – 4 C vegetable or chicken broth
- 4C potatoes, peeled and diced or cubed
- 1t each salt, pepper, red pepper flakes
- several leaves of curly kale from the garden, purple or green, washed well and torn up into pieces
- 1/3 C sour cream (or yogurt)
- splash milk or cream, to whiten up the color and improve consistency
- 5 or 6 slices of cooked pancetta or bacon, sliced into generous strips
- garnish: fresh parsley, parmesan cheese, or spring onions
Instructions:
- Sautee the onion, celery, garlic and half of the diced spring onions in the olive oil in a large sauce pan or stew pot over medium heat. (About 5 minutes)
- Add the white wine and cook another minute.
- Reduce the heat to low and add the chicken broth, potatoes and spices. Cook until the potatoes are tender; approximately 20 minutes.
- When the potatoes are tender, add the kale and half of the chopped bacon and keep on heat another minute or two until the kale is tender.
- Turn off the heat and add the sour cream and stir it in well.
- Checking the color, splash in some milk to brighten the color. You don’t need to add too much, just enough to give your soup a great broth to chunk ratio.
- OPTIONAL: you could at this point use an immersion blender to process until the texture is smooth, or to your desired consistency.
- Garnish with the remaining pancetta and spring onions.
