Bean and Chorizo Soup

I hate it when you have a recipe, and you don't have one of the ingredients, so you go buy it and then it turns out that you don't have several other ingredients. That's when you improvise.
Ingredients

• 12oz chorizo sausage, chopped or crumbled
  
• 1 large red onion, chopped finely
  
• 4 stalks of celery, chopped
  
• ~3c kale, washed and chopped roughly
  
• 6 cloves garlic, mashed
  
• 1 scant tbsp dried thyme
  
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  
• 1 can great northern beans, drained and rinsed
  
• 4c chicken broth
  
• 1/2c extra dry vermouth
  
• dried parsley, olive oil, salt, pepper
  

In a large pot, start the chorizo cooking. When it starts to get a little brown, add the vegetables (except the garlic). Cook over medium-high heat until the veg are starting to get a little tender, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and thyme and cook for another minute or so, until the garlic is "fragrant". Whatever. Add everything else plus some parsley and, yes, even some olive oil. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve! Thoughts: Claire and I both felt that this was missing something. We couldn't quite tell what it was, though. When we reheated the soup the following day, the flavor had improved - it was much richer. Even so, I think that this soup would benefit from, I don't know, mushrooms or something? I mean, this soup was good AND it was easy - don't get me wrong - but it doesn't have the depth of flavor I had hoped for. Disaster Index: 2/10