Kale and Tiny Chicken Meatball Soup

19

January 11, 2011 by Dana

It’s January 11, 2011.  Just eleven days into the New Year.  Eleven days since that moment.

You know the one I’m talking about.  The moment when you vowed to be better.  To live better.  To be the best you can be.

Yes, January 1 at 12:01am was your time.  Maybe it was the excitement.  Or the champagne.  Or that peppy Ryan Seacrest.  But in that moment, you knew it was time to take the plunge.

So you vowed to eat healthier, cook more, drink more water, exercise more, sleep more, read more, make more money, save more money, spend more time with family, spend more time with friends, and pay more attention to the dog.

In fact, you were so excited about the new 2011 you, that you logged right on to twitter and tweeted your master plan to your dearest friends.  All 500 of them.

Fast forward to now, ten days later, and you’re thinking that maybe, just maybe, you were overzealous.  I mean, you were fine the way you were, right?  But you’re stuck.  You told 500 people that you were going to be Martha Stewart on steroids.  You can’t quit after just 11 days.  You’d never hear the end of it!

Well, don’t you worry.   I’ve got your back.  I am giving you an easy, tasty and healthy solution:  A recipe for Kale and Tiny Chicken Meatball Soup (which is basically this one from Andrea at What’s Cooking at the Genua’s? with a few small changes.)

Ingredients

For the Soup:
1 lb  kale
96 oz   light chicken broth
6 large  carrots, chopped

For the Meatballs:

1 pound  ground chicken

1 large  egg

1/2 cup  finely minced onion

1/2 cup  bread crumbs

1/2 cup  freshly grated parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon  salt

1 freshly ground pepper to taste  

Now, this recipe might not take Fluffy to play fetch in the backyard for you, but it will help you stay on track with your healthy eating.  It might even save you enough time to start that 1000 page dissertation on fruit flies that you borrowed from the library last week.Directions

 

1. Trim the kale and discard any bruised leaves. Cut off the stem ends. Separate the leaves and wash well in cool water, especially the center of the leaves where the dirt collects. Stack the leaves and cut crosswise into 1″ strips. There should be about 4 cups.

2. In a large pot, combine the kale, broth, and carrots. Bring to a simmer and cook until the kale is almost tender, about 30 minutes.

 

3. While the kale is cooking, mix together all the meatball ingredients. Shape the mixture into tiny meatballs, less than 1″ in diameter.

4. When the kale is cooked, drop the meatballs into the soup. Cook over low heat, stirring gently, until the meatballs are cooked, about 20 minutes. Taste for seasoning, add salt and pepper if needed.  

This soup is very tasty, and super healthy with all the kale and carrots.  Andrea’s original recipe calls for ground beef or veal, but I wanted to stick with something a little lighter.   I was worried about the meatballs being dried out, as chicken meatballs often are, but they were great!