This recipe started off with a conversation on Ravelry about "dinosaur soup", which one poster's daughter had described as "soup with all the letters to spell dinosaur in it". So, alphabet soup. And then I received a big haul of local fall veggies, including some lacinato kale--which is often called "dino kale". Well, I knew what was going on our menu this weekend.
And it turned out pretty great. I used too much pasta and had to add extra broth, so the recipe below features a scaled back quantity of pasta. You may still want extra broth to add to any leftovers, though, as the pasta will continue to soak up liquid.
It could easily be made vegetarian by using olive oil and skipping the bacon entirely. We had bacon to use up, so why not, right?
Dinosaur Alphabet Soup
Ingredients
- 4 slices Bacon, chopped
- 1 Onion, chopped
- 2 Medium Carrots, chopped
- 2 Ribs celery, chopped
- 1 14 oz can Diced tomatoes
- 2 19 oz cans White beans (cannellini)
- 6 cups Chicken broth (vegetable would work)
- 1 cup Alphabet pasta
- 8-10 leaves Lacinato ("dino") kale
- 1/2 cup Grated Parmesan cheese, to garnish
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp (or to taste) Crushed red pepper flakess
- In large dutch oven over medium heat, cook bacon until crisp. Remove from pot with a slotted spoon, drain, and reserve.
- To the rendered fat, add onion, carrot, and celery. Cook until tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
- Add red pepper and italian seasoning, cook for thirty seconds or so.
- Stir in beans, tomatoes, and broth. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for about twenty minutes.
- Return soup to a boil and add alphabet pasta. Cook about five minutes, then stir in kale and cook another five minutes, until pasta and kale are both tender.
- Serve, garnishing with parmesan and bacon as desired.
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