Vegetarian Kale Soup Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to make kale soup less bitter? ›

Minced garlic, olive oil, and salt are also simple ingredients that can transform the flavor of a bitter kale dish. Cutting the stem of kale and marinating it with olive oil and salt can help reduce bitterness. Let it marinate in the fridge for at least 24 hours for better tenderness and less bitterness.

Kale Soup Recipe Tips

I often make this recipe with curly kale, but Tuscan kale, or lacinato kale, would be lovely here too. No kale on hand? You could swap in another hardy green, such as Swiss chard. Adjust the consistency to your liking.

Got a soup that tastes a little bland and unexciting? Add a splash of vinegar (any kind!), or a squeeze of citrus. Chances are, you could use a little more salt.

Another trick that works with kale, I don't know why this works, but if you add just a little bit of lemon to kale, which is bitter, it actually makes the kale taste less bitter.

For clear, brothy soups, stock is your most important ingredient. If you want to make a good soup, you need to use an excellently flavored stock — otherwise, the entire pot could be tasteless.

Celery, carrot, and onion are the base vegetables for most preparations of this kind. That's because when you gently fry them in extra virgin olive oil, they become a tasty flavor base for your soup, adding depth of flavor.

You can also add tomato paste or fresh or dried herbs like oregano or thyme. Starchy root vegetables like potato, parsnips, turnips and swede will add body to the soup and turn it into a true meal in a bowl. Using a good-quality stock (or making your own) will enhance the flavour of the soup.

What gives soup the best flavor? ›

Foods that have a great deal of acidity, like lemon juice, vinegar, white wine, and tomato puree, can help liven up the flavor of bland-tasting bone and other broths. "The acidity of these ingredients works to complement and enhance the broth's flavors, not mask it.

The best way to reduce or get rid of bitter flavor in broth is to add sugar and acid to offset the bitterness. Adding sugar and acid doesn't just mask the bitter flavor; it actually changes the chemistry within the broth!

Blanch Them

Blanching your greens is key to getting that bitterness level down. Because glucosinolates are water-soluble compounds, a lot of them are leached out into the water, allowing for a less bitter green.

Add Sweet to Kale: Sweet foods go well with kale because they counter its rather bitter taste. Serve curly kale up as a salad with simple ingredients like a blood orange, mango and slivered almonds or apple, feta and toasted walnuts or cook kale up with caramelized onion.

To soften the leaves and further remove the bitter taste, it is advisable to boil alone in ordinary water for 10 to 15 minutes, most people like to add a little quantity of edible potash to hasten this process but I highly advise against it.