A puréed single-vegetable soup with greens on the side is one of my ideal dinners. The problem, of course, is that neither vegetable soup nor greens have an overabundance of protein. So I fixed that by using bean broth in the soup and almonds in the greens. Yay vegetables! Let's eat them all!

Carrot soup with bean broth

onion
garlic
celery
fresh ginger if you have any
carrots (several)
bean broth (or veg, or whatever)
salt, pepper, cumin, paprika
stick blender or other pureéing device
cilantro or parsley and sriracha sauce for optional garnish

Dice up an onion, a few cloves of garlic, and a stalk of celery; sauté them in olive oil in a reasonable soup pot. Peel a knob of fresh ginger, mince it, and add it to the pot. Stir it all up and let cook while you scrub a bunch of carrots under running water. You can peel them if you want, but I never do. It's all carrot, and you're going to purée it anyway, right?

Chop up your carrots and add them to the pot. I think I used four or five, but the amount will really depend on size. Season with salt, pepper, cumin, and paprika, and let cook, stirring occasionally, for about five minutes. You can add some powdered ginger here too if you don't happen to have fresh ginger in the house.

Next, add your broth to the pan. I had a frozen block of adzuki bean broth, so I threw it straight into the pot, turned the heat up, and let it melt there. I also added a little water to make sure the vegetables wouldn't burn. Nearly any kind of broth you have will work fine with this soup, although I can't say I'd use fish stock.

Bring your soup to a boil, lower the heat, put on the lid, and let simmer for about ten minutes, or until your vegetables are cooked through. Then take the pot off the heat and purée.

Check out the soup consistency. If it's too thin, put it back on the heat and cook it down. If it's too thick, add some more water or stock. Taste and correct seasonings, and you're done.

I garnished my soup with sriracha sauce and chopped cilantro, because I like that sort of thing and we had a bunch of cilantro lying around. Parsley would also be good, as would chopped avocado or a spoonful of plain yogurt.

We ate it with:

Garlic almond kale

olive oil
garlic
kale
chopped almonds

Sauté a handful of minced garlic with a glug of olive oil in a wide frying pan. While it's softening, wash and destem a bunch of kale. I used dinosaur kale. DINOSAURS! You can also chop up a handful of almonds if you don't happen to have them already slivered. Don't worry about making them perfect; just chop them any which way.

When the garlic has softened, add in the kale. You may need to do this in two batches, since kale is voluminous until cooked. Stir occasionally, making sure all the kale gets wilted. If you want spicy kale, you can add some sriracha sauce or sambal oelek. Cook for about five minutes, or until all the kale is tender.

At the same time, heat up a different small pan. Toast the chopped almonds in it, tossing frequently. Keep a close eye on them, since nuts can burn really quickly. When they turn golden brown, get them off the heat and out of the pan.

When both your kale and almonds are done, you can either combine them before serving or just get yourself a whack of kale and scatter your preferred amount of almonds on top. Yay garlic almond kale!