New England Instapot Bacon & Kale Potato Soup

Cold months call for cast iron kettles filled with warm-your-belly recipes.  The hearty bacon & kale soup is truly drool-worthy. Creamy, savory, and salty, it's everything that's good about the long winter. We used sugar-free bacon for this dish to keep it as low-carb as possible. You can use any flavor you like. 

Ingredients:

1 package of North Country Smokehouse Sugar-Free Uncured Applewood Smoked Bacon

1 white onion; diced

3-4 cloves of garlic; diced

5-6 medium-sized yellow potatoes; washed, peeled, and cut into 1/2" cubes

1 carton (900mL) no salt added chicken stock (6 cups)

1 bundle of kale leaves; washed

1 cup of milk or heavy cream (optional)

Method:

1) Prep your ingredients. Wash, peel, and cut the potatoes. Dice your garlic and onions.

2) Prep kale leaves by cutting off the hard stems and keeping only the leaves. Wash and dry kale leaves.

3) Turn on the saute mode of the Instant Pot and place 6-7 strips of bacon inside. Remember to reserve a few pieces of bacon to cook later.

4) Saute until the bacon is partially cooked and then add in the diced onions and garlic.

5) Continue stirring until the bacon pieces are cooked and the onion has browned (about 8 minutes).

6) While still on saute mode, add in the potato pieces to the Instapot and stir for one minute.

7) Turn off saute mode and add in the chicken stock.

8) Switch the Instapot to slow cook mode and allow the soup to slow cook for 8 hours. 

9) While the soup is cooking, fry reserved strips of bacon in a separate pan. Fry until crispy. Take off the pan and pat dry bacon between sheets of paper towels. This helps to remove extra bacon oil. Break into smaller pieces when cool.  (reserve the leftover bacon grease for other cooking adventures).

10) After the soup is finished cooking, blend the soup until smooth. Use a stick blender or carefully transfer to a blender (Vitamix or similar) to blend until desired consistency. 

11) Transfer the soup back to the instant pot, and turn back onto saute mode. Once the soup bubbles add a handful of kale leaves. As the soup is still hot it will slightly cook down the kale leaves.

12) Add a cup of milk or heavy cream at this stage (optional) 

13) Pour, serve & Enjoy