Pepperoni Kale Soup

You need a very large soup pot for this. The kale needs to be cooked the beforehand and cooled for chopping.

1 enormous bunch of kale, washed and stems removed
2 slices raw bacon
pan crust from frying 6 slices of bacon
6 cups water.

(This is what I did with those 6 slices of bacon last week...🤣🤣🤣)


Cook the kale with the raw bacon in boiling water on high heat until the water turns a bit black. It was about 30 minutes, I believe. The kale will change color and will be soft. Remove the kale and the raw bacon from the pot with tongs, allowing the liquid to drip back into the pan and reserve the kale in a plastic container with a lid. Refrigerate until it is cool to the touch.

Take the cooled kale and use it like a sponge to swipe out the bits of bacon and crust that remains in the skillet in which you fried the 6 slices of bacon, (this bacon you will NOT put in the soup). The pan should be de-glazed when you are done. Then chop the kale into manageable bite sized bits. Bacon can be chopped also, (optional), and put into the soup.

Place the chopped kale in the bottom of your largest stock pot.

4 quarts chicken stock
1 quart of water
1 heaping tablespoon Better than Bouillon chicken bouillon.
3 large carrots, diced into small chunks (halve lengthwise, cut halves into thirds, and then chop).
3 large onions, chopped
10" to 12" chunk of pepperoni sausage, out coating removed, and sliced thin in food processor
10 to 12 medium potatoes peeled and diced into reasonably large chunks.

Add all ingredients except the potatoes to the kale in the stock pot, and bring to a boil. Cook until the carrot bits are tender. (Takes approximately 30 minutes for the pot to boil, and an additional 20 for the veggies to cook.

Add the potatoes last, after the rest of the soup is done, and boil for an additional 10 minutes.

No salt or other seasonings are needed for this soup, as the Better than Bouillon, the bacon, and the pepperoni all contain salt and seasonings.

If you wish, you can bag the soup up without adding any potatoes, and freeze it flat on rimmed cookie sheets, in gallon sized ziploc bags. If you do this this, you will have about 1/1/2 gallons of soup to thaw and reheat when you wish, and you would add the potatoes to the soup before serving and cook them for 10 minutes after the reheated soup comes to a boil.

Makes 12 large servings