This isn’t too dissimilar from the type of soups I grew up with, particularly the types my Nana used to make. Dried beans, soaked then cooked in a homemade broth, with plenty of olive oil and garlic (it’s a Croatian thing!), and home grown vegetables added just before serving.
Lemon White Bean Kale Soup Recipe
A grounding Tuscan-style, garlicky Lemon White Bean Kale Soup, prepared from scratch using whole dried beans. True soul food and best enjoyed with a rustic knob of sourdough. Vegan.
Ingredients
- 150 g cannellini beans dried (see notes re. using canned, pre-cooked beans)
- 5 cups water
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large white onion diced
- 8 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon thyme dried
- 1 inch strip kombu
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 small potatoes peeled and cubed (about ¾ cup)
- 1 cup kale very tightly packed (preferably Lacinato kale, curly kale isn't as nice a texture)
- Juice and zest of one lemon
Instructions
- Soak dried beans in ample water (they will double in size) for at least 12 hours, the drain and rinse, ready to cook.
- In a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and cook diced onion till soft and golden.
- Add water and stock, dried beans, garlic, thyme, kombu and bay leaves. Cover, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 40 minutes.
- While the soup base cooks, wash kale, remove tough inner stalks, then slice into thin one inch ribbons – take your time with this, it is far nicer to have small delicate pieces.
- After 30 minutes, add the potato, and leave to simmer for a further 10-15 minutes, at which point, both beans and potatoes should be soft. Fish out the bay leaves and kombu and discard. Now use a potato masher to carefully mash the beans/potatoes so about half of them are mashed and half whole (if beans/potatoes aren’t soft yet continue to cook a little longer).
- Add kale, and cook for another 5-10 minutes. Note the water content – you may be just right, you may need to top up, or even cook uncovered to reduce it down.
- By now, your total cooking time should be about an hour and ten minutes.
- Once kale has just softened, add another tablespoon of olive oil, and stir in the lemon juice and zest. Serve with crusty bread and perhaps a sprinkle of nut parmesan!
Notes• You can make this with pre-cooked, canned beans – one 400g tin should do the trick – just rinse and drain before cooking, and use much less water/stock (perhaps 4 cups total liquid). Your cooking time will drastically reduce also.Recipe Adapted : LEMON WHITE BEAN KALE SOUP @ ascensionkitchen
• If you have a large enough pot – this is a great recipe to double then freeze.
• Try adding a finely sliced fennel bulb to the pot as your fry the onion – yum.
• Try using diced parsnip or swede in place of potato if you need to adapt this to be nightshade free.
• I know it sounds a lot, but trust me – 8 cloves of garlic is just fine!