soup with white beans and kale

The festival of beans continues. This is from the article on the "subsistence diet" in Steingarten's The Man Who Ate Everything and is credited to Daniel Boulod. I couldn't believe how good this was. Of course, I was famished and in need of comfort after supply teaching grade 1 gym (!) and grade 4 homeroom today. I had left a pound of white kidneys out to soak almost 24 hours earlier.

• cut up and fry off a few strips of bacon in a soup pot
• chop a large onion and sweat in the bacon and bacon fat
• add one or two cloves of garlic minced, stir, then add 8 cups of light chicken stock and the presoaked beans
• bring to a boil and simmer for about 45 minutes until the beans are tender
• add a pound of chopped kale or Swiss chard (ribs removed), S&P (and some nutmeg). cook for another 15 minutes

Serve topped with a cheese crouton (thin slice of good bread—O Sullivan Street filone, how I long for thee—spread with ricotta or fresh goat's milk cheese and sprinked with grated parmesan and pepper then broil). Very, very satisfying.