The past couple of days here in Dallas have been gloom and doom. The kind of rainy day cold that makes you yearn for something warm in your body. After the third day of gloom, I decided to make some crazy different version of soup to reclaim my creativity and warmth back. I hijacked a recipe from Living Well Network and made it my own.
I call it Greens and Turkey Balls.
Let’s just say this was a process. Only because I was worried about the greens having grit in them and also needed to remove the bitter stems. A lot of work but now my freezer is stocked with some yumtastic soup for the next time I crave something hot. So get your sous chef skills ready because you are about to dive in.
First thing is fill your sink with cold water and submerge your greens. I chose kale, mustard greens, and spinach. They were hanging out for about 20 minutes and then I rinsed each piece as well.
Next – take the stems off the kale and mustard greens. This takes a while! Once you take a stem off just give them a rough chop. I composted my huge pile of stems but did wish I had chickens to eat them up.
I decided to buy the mature spinach not in the easy ready to go bag. Big mistake, although I did it because I was avoiding buying the plastic bag. Yes it was cheaper buying the bundle but picking off all the stems took forever. Just buy the easy stuff in the bag.
Next – combine chopped onion, garlic, and some curry in a pot and saute. When the onion is cooked add in water until you think it’s enough and toss in some chicken bullion cubes. I added in lots of water (probably like 10 cups) and then about 3 chicken bullion cubes. And now add in the greens and a bay leaf. They will fill your pot:
Turn the burner on high and wait for a boil. In the meantime take some ground turkey and add some chili flakes. I added until I could see a good mix of chili flakes throughout. Next roll the turkey into little balls.
When the liquid comes to a boil and the greens have started to deflate down, it’s time to add the meatballs. Just toss them in and simmer another 15-20 minutes.
Lastly – toss the spinach in a pan with some olive oil and salt. Saute and add the spinach to the pot. The spinach actually turned out to be my favorite green in the soup.
Finallllllly! The soup is finished!
I was scared the greens would ruin the flavor of the broth but it actually tasted scrumptious. I used an entire bundle of mustard greens, kale and spinach so it was Green heavy. You will definitely get your iron with this soup. The turkey balls were great with the chili flakes too.
I am on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for health reasons and this falls perfectly into my diet. I just left out the potatoes in the original recipe and upped my greens. I made enough for an army so I froze two containers full and will pull this out when I need a quick meal. Perfect and love having ready to go food in my fridge for my lazy days.
Get your green food on!