Per Request: Hearty Kale Soup, and also Tasty Butternut Apple soup

I am going to try to write down what I did to make my most recent batch of kale soup.  It was a real winner, but sometimes the challenge is remembering what you did to get the recipe right!

Hearty Kale Soup

Ingredients:

2 large bunches of Kale, rinsed and chopped
1 medium onion (1/2 large sweet onion), chopped coarsely
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tbsp dijon mustard
2-3 tbsp balsamic vinegar (or to taste)
Fresh ground black pepper
5-6 cups of chicken broth

Over medium heat in a large soup pot, heat oil, then saute onion and garlic until softened.  Add mustard, vinegar and pepper, and stir.  Add chicken broth.  Bring to a boil, then add kale.  Simmer for 10-15 minutes, covered, stirring once or twice to make sure it cooks evenly.  Pour into blender or food processor and process in batches.  taste and adjust seasonings.

I will probably be able to adjust this after another try at making it.  I have already made a second batch and am pretty sure it needed more of the balsamic to get it just right.

Here is my first pass at butternut apple soup, as best as I can recall:

3 cups butternut squash cut in 1 inch cubes (or a little smaller)
2 large Cortland apples, peeled and sliced
1/4 large sweet onion, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
4 cups vegetable broth
fresh ground black pepper to taste
2-3 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2-4 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Over medium heat in a large soup pot, heat oil, then saute the onion.  Add the rest of the ingredients except vinegar and simmer until vegetables and fruit are soft.  Add vinegar to taste.