Rustic kale soup

If there's one thing shih tzus love, it's food blogging. Buster, seen above, supervises all my efforts, and he was particularly excited about this rustic kale soup with a little beef, grains, and lots of vegetables. As a connoisseur of carrot and celery sticks, Buster knew a soup so packed with vegetables would be thoroughly satisfying and delicious.

I based this on the "White Bean Soup with Greens and Rice" from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (from which I do cook everything), but I modified it quite a bit -- using the suggested variation with beef, leaving out the beans, and generally making it into a totally different soup. Here's a rough outline:

• 1/2 lb of kale, stems removed and chopped, leaves cut into bite-size squares
  
• Two carrots, chopped
  
• Two celery stalks, chopped
  
• One onion, diced
  
• 1/2 C dry quinoa
  
• 1/2 C dry brown rice
  
• 1/2 lb of beef, cut into very small bites
  
• 5 cups beef or vegetable stock, or water
  
• 1 tsp minced garlic

Sautee the onion, brown the beef, then add the rest of the ingredients and cover with water and simmer until the grains are thoroughly cooked and the vegetables are tender. You could be more precise and add the vegetables one at a time, but nothing in here is delicate enough to cause trouble if it cooks a few extra minutes.

The finished product was quite packed with ingredients, not much spare broth for them to swim around in, but everything seems super healthy -- perfect for the ultra cold weather we've had here recently.