This comforting, vegan White Bean Kale Soup is one of our all-time favorite soup recipes. It has plenty of fresh lemon for brightness, a kick from red pepper flakes and potatoes for a little heartiness. It's even better as leftovers the next day!
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🥣 Why We Love This Recipe
- Simple prep: After some chopping, you're done prepping and all that's left is adding ingredients to the pot, which makes this soup super easy to put together.
- Tastes like it took hours to make: Even though this soup comes together in under an hour, it has a rich and hearty vegetable flavor that tastes as if it were simmering for hours.
- Easy to adapt: This white bean kale soup is naturally vegan (and gluten free!), but it's also great for the meat eaters in your family because chicken, sausage, etc. are all great additions.
- Perfect for meal prep: this soup tastes just as good on day 3 as it does fresh from the stove. Make a big batch on Sunday and enjoy all week!
🥬 Ingredients
Here's everything you'll need to make this white bean kale soup:
📋 Ingredient Notes
- White beans: We used cannellini beans, but you can substitute for great northern beans, navy beans, or even kidney beans. They all have a similar taste and texture.
- Kale: We used lacinato kale (aka dinosaur or Tuscan kale). Regular leafy green kale would work well too, but we prefer the texture of lacinato in this recipe. You can also sub with another leafy green like collards or swiss chard.
- Vegetable broth: We usually opt for low-sodium vegetable broth so that we can adjust the salt levels as we see fit. If you use a full-sodium broth and the recommended amount of salt in this recipe, it may end up being too salty, so make sure to taste as you go along!
- Pro tip: try homemade vegetable broth using leftover veggie scraps or corn cobs! You can freeze it and use in several recipes.
- Dried parsley: Dried herbs are more concentrated than fresh herbs, so if you're using fresh parsley, you'll have to use ¼ cup instead of 2 teaspoon of the dried stuff.
- Italian seasoning: this dried herb blend makes it easy to add flavor to this white bean kale soup without having to open and measure several different dried herbs. If you don't have any of the blend, you can also use 1 teaspoon total of a mixture of dried basil, parsley and oregano instead.
- Potatoes: we prefer yukon golds in this recipe, which have a buttery flavor and don't get mealy in this soup.
🔪 Step-by-step Instructions
(1) Heat oil in large stock pot. Add onion and cook for 5-6 minutes, until softened. Add garlic, carrot and potatoes - stir and continue cooking 5 minutes, until carrots are slightly softened.
(2) Add bay leaves, parsley, Italian seasoning, salt, red pepper flakes and black pepper. Stir well, then add broth and bring to a boil.
(3) Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes, until potatoes are fork tender.
(4) Add in kale, cannellini beans and lemon juice and cook until kale is wilted (about 10 minutes). Taste and adjust salt + lemon as needed.
Serve topped with parmesan (vegan or regular) and more red pepper flakes. Enjoy!
🎥 Recipe Video
💭 Expert Tips and FAQs
- For the non-vegans in the family, this soup is great with some spicy Italian sausage or leftover rotisserie chicken added in. You can actually also add in a vegan sausage alternative – we love these ones from Field Roast!
- Storage: let the soup cool before transferring to any container, and store in the fridge for 3-5 days or freeze (making sure to leave space at the top for expansion!) and enjoy within a few months. This is a relatively brothy soup, so it's great for freezing and reheating.
- Reheating: Thaw the soup overnight in the refrigerator, then heat in a large pot over medium heat. You may need to add some extra broth or water if the soup looks too thick.
- Serving suggestions: we love serving this soup with garlic bread, or better yet, a quick crostini: just brush your favorite bread with olive oil, sprinkle some cheese in there, and pop in the oven to toast. It's also great with a panini or a side salad!
We recommend using lacinato or dinosaur kale instead of common curly kale. It has more flavor and holds its texture after cooking. We don't recommend swapping with spinach, which wilts too much in soup.
🍽 Related Recipes
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Print📖 Recipe
White Bean Kale Soup
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4-6
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This comforting, vegan White Bean Kale Soup is one of our all-time favorite soup recipes. It has plenty of fresh lemon for brightness, a kick from red pepper flakes and potatoes for a little heartiness. It's even better as leftovers the next day!
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 diced yellow onion (~1 ½ cups)
- 3 cloves minced garlic (~1 tbsp)
- 1 ½ cup diced Yukon gold or yellow potatoes
- 1 ½ cup diced carrot
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tsp dried parsley (or ¼ cup fresh)
- 1 ½ tsp dried Italian seasoning blend
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp red pepper flakes
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- 6 cups lacinato kale, roughly chopped
- 2 14 oz. cans white beans*, drained and rinsed
- 2 tbsp lemon juice + more to taste
Instructions
- Heat oil in large stock pot.
- Add onion and cook for 5-6 minutes, until softened. Add garlic, carrot and potatoes - stir and continue cooking 5 minutes, until carrots are slightly softened.
- Add all spices/seasonings, stir well, then add broth and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes, until potatoes are fork tender. Add in kale, cannellini beans and lemon juice and cook until kale is wilted (about 10 minutes). Taste and adjust salt + lemon as needed.
Notes
*White beans: We used cannellini beans, but you can substitute for great northern beans, navy beans, or even kidney beans. They all have a similar taste and texture.
Storage: let the soup cool before transferring to any container, and store in the fridge for 3-5 days or freeze (making sure to leave space at the top for expansion!) and enjoy within a few months.
Italian seasoning: this dried herb blend makes it easy to add flavor to this white bean kale soup without having to open and measure several different dried herbs. If you don't have any of the blend, you can also use 1 teaspoon total of a mixture of dried basil, parsley and oregano instead.
Kale: We used lacinato kale (aka dinosaur or Tuscan kale). Regular leafy green kale would work well too, but we prefer the texture of lacinato in this recipe. You can also sub with another leafy green like collards or swiss chard.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Bowl
- Calories: 269
- Sugar: 5.9 g
- Sodium: 1032 mg
- Fat: 5.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 46 g
- Fiber: 9.4 g
- Protein: 11.9 g
Blair says
This is a great recipe! We substituted rosemary, oregano and thyme for the Italian seasonings and could have just enjoyed the broth it was so savory and delicious! The lemon juice at the end is a perfect touch. 😘
That Linda says
Just made this recipe while enjoying a crisp fall afternoon in northern Michigan. It’s delicious!! I added a can of drained, diced tomatoes and also some sliced, chicken Italian sausage. It made for a hearty meal. Thank you for sharing this recipe. The flavor profile is perfection.
Betsy says
One of my favorites, and I keep coming back to it. Awesome for easy substitutions based on what I have.