Dukan Diet

This recipe for Kale and Basil Pesto with Lemon and Parmesan is a Public Service Announcement for all those lucky people who are growing kale in their gardens.  I actually made the pesto in these photos last September when my garden at the old house was bursting with kale.  Since I was giving kale away to anyone who stopped by, the abundance of kale led me to experiment with using it as an ingredient in pesto.  Kale is a strong flavor, so I froze my pesto in this mini-muffin tin, and each little ball of pesto was about three tablespoons, just the right amount to stir into a soup or toss with some pasta or rice.  If you have kale growing in your garden, or if your CSA or Farmer's Market gives you more kale than you know what to do with this summer, I highly recommend making this as soon as possible.

Strangely enough, I used to be much better at eating breakfast when I had to go off to work every morning.  Back in those days I had to be organized, so I always made Egg Muffins or Breakfast Casseroles on the weekend to microwave during the week.  My breakfast habits had gotten more and more sporadic since I'd been working at home, and recently I vowed to get back to my healthy breakfast routine.  It was a combination of very hot weather and that commitment to a healthy breakfast every day that finally inspired me to try eggs in the slow cooker, and I was thrilled with this Slow Cooker Frittata with Kale, Roasted Red Pepper, and Feta.

I'd probably never heard of Whole Wheat Orzo Pasta in 2010 when I first made this Italian Sausage and Kale Soup using broken pieces of whole wheat spaghetti, but orzo is such a perfect soup ingredient that when I decided to update the recipe with better photos, it seemed like a perfect switch.  So now I have to rename the recipe to Italian Sausage and Kale Soup with Whole Wheat Orzo, don't I?  But no worries if you don't have orzo (or don't want to buy it), go ahead and break up some spaghetti into short pieces to add to the soup.  You could also make a delicious lower-carb soup using this recipe by leaving out the pasta completely.  

Sausage, kale, tomatoes, and whole wheat orzo or spaghetti; doesn't that sound like a combination that could inspire a lot of good recipes?  When I updated the photos for this soup, I increased the amount of kale so the soup is even more nutritious, but no matter how you make it, this soup is definitely a winner.  (Updated January 2015 with better photos and instructions.)