sometimes you just need a little bacon in your life, can i get an amen? anyone who knows me, knows i love bacon…almost as much as i love baseball. (in case you haven’t guessed, this is k). this soup/stew/bowl of amazingness that was created saturday night was something i needed to write about. to be honest, i can’t take much credit for this. in fact, i can’t take any credit. all i can say is that with every bite of this, i fall in love with it more and more. is it the bacon? is it the potatoes? is it the mascarpone cheese? for those wondering, i classify this soup as healthy, since it has kale in it. anything with kale is healthy, right? right.

let’s be real for a minute here. i can really only describe this as a party of flavor in my mouth. how everything plays together is so incredible, it’s hard to even describe it. if this were the last soup on earth, you had better believe i would be the one licking the bowl at the end. yes, that’s how i feel about this soup. as we like to say in our house, h really #nailedit. we’ll be seeing a lot more of this in our future.

ingredients:
-few tablespoons canola oil
-4 slices thick-cut bacon, chopped into 1-inch pieces
-1 yellow onion, diced
-3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
-3 russet potatoes (we used 2 russets + a handful of purple fingerlings)
-2 15-oz. cans of cannellini beans, drained
-a few handfuls of kale, washed and chopped
-3-4 cups vegetable broth
-4 oz. mascarpone cheese
-salt, pepper, cayenne to taste

directions:
1. heat a few tablespoons of canola oil in a large pot. once hot, place bacon slices in the pot and fry until they reach your desired crispiness. remove bacon from pot and set aside, but reserve grease in pot.

2. meanwhile, par-cook your potatoes so that your soup will cook faster. i do this by slicing the potatoes into bite-size pieces, placing in a single layer on a plate, and microwaving for 3-5 minutes, or until they start to become soft-ish when poked with a knife.

3. place onions and garlic into pot with bacon grease and cook for a few minutes, until onions start to become translucent and fragrant. then, add sliced par-cooked potatoes, 2 cans of drained white beans, and about 3 cups of vegetable broth. give everything a good stir. bring soup back up to a boil, then turn heat down to a simmer at medium-low until potatoes are cooked through, about 15-20 minutes.

4. after potatoes are cooked mostly through, add chopped kale to the pot and use your judgment to determine whether additional vegetable broth is needed. i liked having this be a thicker soup, but still added another 1/2 cup after putting in the kale. totally up to you. continue cooking soup until kale starts to wilt, about 5 minutes.

5. remove soup from heat and stir in 4 oz. mascarpone cheese and the bacon pieces you set aside earlier. add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. serve with crusty broiled bread. bon appetit!