Tuscan White Bean, Kale, and Olive Soup

I bought olives since I remembered I was using up the last of a bottle. I did this twice. Both times from Costco. So with 5 large bottles of olives, I'm looking for olive recipes. I also had kale, and some bell peppers, and so I made this soup.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup of onions, diced
• 1 cup of carrots, diced small
• 1 celery rib, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced (use a red one if you have one)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary, minced (optional)
• 2 15-ounce cans white beans cans, rinsed and drained
• 4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• 2 Italian sausages links (about 12 ounces) (optional, or use 4 ounces crumbled feta)
• 4 to 8 basil leaves, plus extra leaves for serving (optional)
• 1/2 cup green olives, diced
• 3 cups packed shredded kale (roughly 1 small bunch)
• handful finely chopped flat leaf parsley (or1 tablespoon dried)
• 2 or 3 green onions, diced (optional, I had some and threw them in)

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or heavy pot over medium heat. Saute the onions, carrots, celery, and bell peppers until onions are lightly softened and translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. To the pot, add the garlic, chili flakes, and rosemary (if using).
3. Stir to cook the garlic, about 30 seconds.
4. Add the beans to the pot and stir.
5. Add the stock to the pot and stir.
6. Bring the soup to a boil, and reduce to a simmer.
7. If making with sausage, add it in now and simmer for 20 minutes or so.
8. About 10 minutes before serving, pull out the sausage and let cool a few minutes on a cutting board.
9. Ladle out half of the soup to be blended. (I put about 4 cups in a large measuring cup, and used an immersion blender to liquify the beans and veggies.)
10. Pour the liquified soup back into the pot (this makes the soup have a creamy feel)
11. Cut the sausage links into small pieces, and put back in the soup.
12. Add basil sprigs and olives to the soup,
13. Add kale in batches, letting wilt slightly before adding more; simmer just until kale is tender, about 3 minutes.

Carole's Notes:

We liked this! I had planned to use feta in the soup, but Doug mentioned he would probably like sausage in his soup. Since I had feta in the sourdough foccacia, I used sausage instead.
 



The soup recipe is adapted from https://thefirstmess.com/2018/01/03/creamy-white-bean-soup-vegan-recipe/
and
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/navy-bean-escarole-stew-with-feta-and-olives

The focaccia is based on this feta date focaccia recipe, but uses 1/2 cup feta, 1/2 cup diced green olives, and 1/2 cup diced sundried tomatoes + 1 tablespoon diced rosemary as the mix ins. I also allowed the sourdough to leaven the bread without added yeast, so the rising times were longer.