Tuscan Kale Soup and Corn Muffins

More Kale in the CFA. More Kale recipes to discover. I make soup year round, even in the summer, so I thought I'd try a Kale soup. Soup is just so darn easy to make. With soup I like bread, so I did a corn muffin - gluten free of course. The whole meal was easy and came out yummy. The corn muffins did not scream "gluten free", which is a plus.

So the soup - Tuscan Bean soup with Kale
1. Chop - 1 medium onion, 3 carrots, 3 ribs of celery, 1 small shallot, 3 cloves garlic.
2. Add veggies to 3 tbsp of hot olive oil and sautee until softened. Add chopped rosemary (1 tsp). sage- 2 tsp, oregano- 1 tsp and thyme- 1 tsp.
3. Add 6 cups chicken or vegetable stock. Let come to a simmer.
4. Add to pot 2 - 14 ounce cans of rinsed canneli (white) beans, and one bunch of chopped kale.
5. Add pepper to taste. Simmer for 20 minutes. Serve with parmesan cheese.

and the Corn Muffins:

This recipe is form CIA Gluten Free Baking.

1 1/2 cup buttermilk
4 eggs
3/4 cup canola oil
2 3/4 cups flour blend #4 (blend of white rice flour, tapioca flour and soy flour)
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
2 large jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced ( the ones from the cfa were strong so I used less than what was called for - which was 5 peppers)
1/2 cup cheese, grated ( used gruyere - cheddar or parmesean would be good too)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Whisk together buttermilk, egg and oil. In a seperate bowl combine dry ingredients.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, whisking until smooth. ( with gluten free baking you do not have to worry so much about over mixing as there is no gluten to be developed)
4. Fold in the peppers and the cheese.
5. tranfer batter into oiled muffin pans t0 3/4 full.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm in the center. Toothpick will come out clean.

YUM

We are getting lots of squashes - yellow and zucchini. The next blog or two will be dedicated to the squash we love. It's not a big sell in this house, so I keep trying.