Today Jen and I started our afternoon by doing shots of vegetable juices. I brought my silly little juicer over to her place with a bag of spinach, carrots, beet greens, and kale. Jen insisted we use shot glasses and thus we began with the spinach. Now, though much juicing takes place in my mother's home, it has never been of vegetables by themselves, without loads of apples and oranges sweetening the taste. The spinach tasted awful, like tiny particles of anger fighting to invade your brain through your palate. We followed with carrot, which wasn't awful, but kale, truly the king of juiced vegetables, tasted like gasoline. I never thought I'd be able to say something tasted worse than wheatgrass. Strangely, however, we both felt quite full after those three shotglasses, most likely due to bodily reaction that rejected any more ingestion.
When I got home, I decided to make a hearty soup that could be stored and eaten in busy times. Since I had soaked white beans the night before, a can of tomatos, and leftover kale, I could make a white bean soup! I first boiled the beans for about an hour with sauteed onion, rosemary, and salt, then added a can of diced tomatoes, chicken bouillon, and sliced kale (no stems!). The bean broth after cooking was so delicious I couldn't throw it out (thus leading to bits of rosemary floating around the finished soup), and the calm consistency of the kale nicely complements the tanginess of the tomato. Hopefully it will be just as delicious reheated!
