I carry no phone An aspiring Luddite In a wired world. Mastodon Verification Link	Jeff Berry is an early adopter of the Internet and the Web, a late adopter of Twitter, and declines to adopt Facebook. With the death of Google+, he migrated to the Fediverse. He admins a medievalist Mastodon instance. He hates cell-phones.

I like kale, you know. It's robust, has a nice flavour, and looks pretty - all the traits one looks for in a leafy green. Furthermore, you can steam it, sauté it, bake it to make chip-like-objects, cut it up and put it in a stir-fry or in soups, or you can even make it the centerpiece of a soup.

It is a pretty sturdy green, as greens go, so if you want a smooth, creamy soup, it will take a little time to cook it to the proper level of mushiness. It's worth doing every now and then, though, since you get a different experience than you do with larger chunks.

To liven this up a bit, I decided to top it with a poached egg and roasted beets, which makes it a complete meal in one bowl. This does produce a dish which is a bit mono-texture, so croutons or the like might be a good idea, just to add a little crunch. I'm planning on using croutons instead of beets when it comes around again as leftovers tonight.

• 3-4 large beets
• an onion
• one egg per serving
• 250 ml/1 cup cream (double, heavy, pouring, what have you)
• a lot of kale; I had nearly 1 kg, and used all of it except for the center stalk
• splash of oil
• salt and lots of pepper

Put a large pot on the stove and add a small splash of oil. Turn on the heat and while it's getting hot, dice an onion. Add the onion to the pot and turn your attention to the kale. Wash it and trim the stems. Cut the stems smallish and add them to the pot with the onions. Then cut the leaves. A rough cut is fine, since there will be additional processing later. Add the leaves to the pot, add a couple of cups of water, a decent amount of salt, and quite a lot of pepper - there's a lot of kale in there. Reduce the heat and let the greens cook down, checking on them now and again to make sure the liquid hasn't boiled away. This will take up to a couple of hours, but when it's done, the greens will have reduced down to about 50% of their original volume, and will be pretty soft.

Prepare the kitchen spattering device, known in some circles as a stick or immersion blender, and liberally spatter the kitchen. Alternatively, you might run the soup through a blender or food processor.

Now, as you approach serving time, dice your beets. Get ready to poach the eggs. I heated some water with just a splash of vinegar in it. When it was simmering, I stirred it to make a bit of a whirlpool and then cracked my egg into that. When the egg goes in, add the cream to the soup, and mix well; you don't need it to cook anymore, just heat thoroughly.

Ladle the soup into a bowl, top with a poached egg, sprinkle with beets, and, if you like, a bit of sea salt. Serve.

To mix things up a bit, you could use croutons instead of or in addition to beets. You could also use eggs cooked in other manners on top, or neglect them entirely. Crispy bacon might be a good topper as well, adding both flavour and crunch.