From Flip-Flop to Flop

It may have been inevitable that my first post-vacation cooking endeavor was a flop. I can say however, that my heart was in the right place. I was trying to choose a healthy recipe to get our eating back on track. I'm sure you will agree with me that we all let down our guard a bit while on vacation so we eat differently than we eat at home. This vacation was no exception. There are so many unique and delicious food choices and beverages on Maui and we decided to enjoy both while there. Needless to say, we need to get back to our normal way of eating. For this reason, I decided to choose a recipe from my "Clean Start" cookbook that uses organic, low-fat, nutrient-rich ingredients.

The recipe I chose is Kale, Sweet Potato and White Bean Soup. It's not that the recipe itself is bad, it's just that we didn't love the final result. I would make a few changes in the ratio of ingredients and I would also add a bit of color to make the soup more visually interesting if I decided to cook it again. I will comment further on both of these changes after I provide the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 small yellow onion, diced

2 Tbsp grated fresh ginger

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

3 stalks celery, diced

1 large sweet potato, diced

3 cups cooked great northern or navy beans, rinsed

3 Tbsp mirin

1 bunch kale, chopped

vegetable stock

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

pinch of ground nutmeg

Gomasio or toasted seasame seeds

In large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, saute onion and ginger in olive oil until soft (about 3 minutes). Add celery, sweet potato, beans and mirin and stir. Add kale and enough stock to cover all ingredients by an inch. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes to allow potatoes to cook through and allow flavor to develop. Season to taste with nutmeg, sea salt and pepper and serve topped with gomasio or toasted sesame seeds. Serves 4.

The first change I would make regarding ingredient ratios is to double the amount of sweet potato and halve the quantity of kale. The second change I would make is to add one more cup of beans. I would also use less stock to produce a heartier final result. I actually snapped a few photos of the soup but decided not to post a photo because to be honest, the soup is monochromatic. I tend to prefer dishes that provide some visual interest so I think I would either add a diced carrot or a diced red or yellow bell pepper to the recipe. I am a fan of Gomasio, which is a mixture of toasted sesame seeds and sea salt, so I may look for another recipe that utilizes Gomasio.

All in all, this was a good way to re-enter my cooking project after my 2-week hiatus. It wasn't our favorite dish ever but this cookbook has not yet let me down so I will let this one slide. :)