What does it mean to eat healthy? We think it's important to offer our children and our selves healthy options, to fill our plates with whole grains, fresh vegetables and carefully selected portions of lean meat. You may visit the farmer's market or your local grocer and fill your cloth bag with a bounty of delicious fruits and vegetables. Your children can sniff those vegetables, smile shyly at the farmer and help you cook of all that into wondrous meals that you all eat and enjoy. Or so you think. It does not matter how healthy you strive to be or portend to be if there are little people (or even you) in your house who push the vegetables away to get to the noodles. It seems like a simple equation, doesn't it? Sometimes it isn't. Sometimes you will be told by a very apologetic doctor that your son, the one with pneumonia who has been sick for two weeks and barely eating that his iron is low and he will need a supplement. The doctor will be kind and gentle as he asks you questions about your sick child's diet and though he is satisfied that the problem is that the little guy's iron is low precisely because he's beens so sick; there will be nagging doubts that you didn't and have not been feeding your child properly. It just may send you into a tailspin of doubt about all that food you prepare. All those hours in farmer's markets and in the kitchen will seem as if for nothing.
As a family we went home and regrouped, which means to return to the kitchen, our dining room table and the market. Bubs and Miss N went back to running around the farmer's market on Saturday morning and sneaking plums and tomatoes out of baskets as I talked to Ted at the Hutten farm table so that I would be cajoled into buying them the pilfered goods. It was also opportune to have our rainbow kit from Kia at Today I Ate a Rainbow! as it gives us a chance to actually measure those green vegetables Bubs has apparently been feeding to the cat. It is also important to also eat food that is delicious, familiar and in the case of this aromatic soup, a healthy emulation of a not so healthy dish. The soup, though basic is flavourful and filling because of the large amount of kale which is why you only need a small amount of pork for each bowl.
The pork for this recipe came from a cheap cut but that does not mean it lacks in quality or protein and there are a lot of things you can do with those cheap cuts of meat - talk to your butcher or farmer at the local market, they really can help you. The kale came out of our CSA, making it local and no-spray and as with any leafy green vegetable, wash it well lest you end up with a gritty dish! I gave up using powdered stock a while ago because those things are filled with sodium and monosodium glutamate, otherwise known as MSG and I'm just not comfortable feeding that to my kids, if that is what you have on hand, I promise not to shun you. We do a fair amount of stovetop sears for our meat and then finish in the oven so it's imperative to have at least one pan with a snug fitting lid with a handle that won't melt all over the bottom of the oven.
Quick note: this is obviously not a vegetarian recipe but if you were to swap out the chicken stock for vegetable stock and use tofu (in the same spices) and you are golden for your veggie friends!
The Soup
Total cooking time: 30 minutes
3 cups/750 mL chicken stock
2 cups/500 mL hot water
2 onions, coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 apple, finely chopped
bunch of kale, cut into ribbons
handful of spaetzle
olive oil
1. In a large pot heat olive oil until it easily slips across the bottom of the pot when tilted, at this point add the onion. At this point you could sip on a glass of wine and chat with your significant other while the onions slowly caramelize at a low setting or you could speed things up at medium heat because the kids are hungry and circling.
2. Add the garlic and apple and stir to mix, heat for a 3-4 minutes. At this point add the kale and stir around to gently wilt.
3. Add the hot water and stock - to save time it's important that your liquid is hot as opposed to using cold where you would have to wait for the entire thing to heat up.
4. Once the whole pot is simmering away, add your spaetzle. I used only a small amount because the soup is already hearty due to the kale. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Season to taste with salt and cracked pepper.
The Pork
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp. sesame oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp. 5 spice
3 tbsp. coarse salt
pork back rib tips
1. Mix together first seven ingredients and poor over the pork rib tips, store in the fridge to marinate. This was Mr.'s part of the meal - he marinated for a couple of hours but ideally you could whip this together in the morning and leave throughout the day to stew in deliciousness.
2. When ready to cook, heat a pan on medium high heat with a tablespoon of olive oil in the pan. Sear the pork - should take about 3 minutes.
3. Pour the liquid into the pan and cover so that you can finish in the oven at 350ยบ for 30 minutes.
4. Slice thinly and top the soup.
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