Kale and Mini Meatball Soup

Although it was around 60 degrees here the other day...
I do know that winter is officially here and here to stay until at least early April is my guess.
When it's cold outside, I naturally want hot, warm food whether it's a hot chai
or hot chocolate or of course some hot soup.
I only recently discovered Kale. I made a very easy soup that
I call kale and mini meatball soup.

Kale is in the cabbage family along with broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens and brussel sprouts.

Kale is known to have a lot of vitamin C, vitamin K, Lutein, beta carotene and is rich in calcium.

I'm sure you've seen the flowering Kale as well- which is often seen in flower beds and it really 

does look like a head of cabbage.

As far as the Kale Soup with mini meatballs-

I started off with boiling some chicken broth. That was the base of my soup. 

 There really is not too much to this soup. It's chopping the vibrant green Kale.

After rinsing and cutting the Kale into about 1-2 inch pieces, I cut one potato into small squares.

I tossed the Kale and potatoes in the pot first so that they would get cooking. 

(You don't want a crunchy potato in your soup, well at least not this soup)

I then took some ground beef and added, salt, pepper, a sprinkle of bread crumbs and some dry basil

leaves and mushed them all together with my hands and then rolled very small mini meatballs.

                                   

You can see how each meatball is unique in its own way. (No two are the same)
I often hear teachers say: "You are unique, just like everyone else"   Did you get that?
You (individual) are unique (one of a kind) just like EVERYONE  ELSE!   haha

The meatballs don't take that long to cook especially because they are mini-sized so I toss the
meatballs in once the potatoes are completely cooked. I throw in some diced tomatoes
(1-2 tomatoes) once the meatballs turn the tan-brown color they turn once they are cooked.

I stir everything around to mix it all up and turn the stove off and put a lid on the pot
so they can all stay nice and hot until I decide which bowl to ladle it into.
I've also made the soup with sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes as well.
Both are good, the sweet potatoes or yams are healthier than the regular potatoes though! 
You can also add diced onions to the soup as well.
(If you're using onions- you only need half of a medium sized onion and you can throw the
onions in first so they cook all the way through. (The onions are merely to give the broth
a even better flavor- surely not the superstar in this soup)

Kale soup with mini meatballs, potatoes and tomatoes!
Good and healthy on a cold winters night.