This creamy white bean soup with kale, rosemary, and lemon is cozy and vibrant, and just the right thing to turn to for keeping us warm and satisfied. I do enjoy this vegan recipe all year though. I also love that it comes together in 40 minutes!
I think almost every soup recipe uses the descriptors “soothing” and “restorative,” and this one really is both. I use one my favorite tricks for a touch of richness here and puree half of the soup to enrich the texture. It’s lightly creamy but still broth-y. The base is really simple with a focus on the earthiness of the white beans. Kale is added for a touch of green at the end, and lemon lifts everything up.
More Vegan Soup Recipes:
- Ginger Sweet Potato & Coconut Milk Stew with Lentils and Kale
- Quick, Smoky Red Lentil Stew
- Smoky Chickpea, Lentil & Cabbage Stew with Kale
- Lemony Chickpea Soup with Spinach & Potatoes
The simplicity is what makes this soup so stunning to me. I wouldn’t hesitate to bring it to someone that is feeling under the weather, but it’s also great for everyday enjoyment.
With a dish as basic as this creamy white bean soup, I like to really focus on the quality of the ingredients. I use a particularly rich homemade vegetable stock and I like to cook the beans from their dried state. The stock especially makes a difference!
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Creamy White Bean Soup with Kale
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, small dice
- 1 medium carrot, small dice
- 1 stick celery, small dice
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- red pepper flakes or aleppo pepper, to taste
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary, minced
- 4 cups cooked navy beans, drained and rinsed
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- 3 cups chopped and packed Lacinato kale (roughly 1 small bunch)
- ¼ cup flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped
Equipment
Notes
- Since this soup is so light on ingredients, I do recommend making your own vegetable stock for the best possible flavor, right from the hop.
- I finished my soup with a lemon-infused extra virgin olive oil and it was delicious!
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a medium-large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions, carrots, and celery to the pot and stir. Sauté the vegetables until lightly softened and translucent, about 5 minutes.
- To the pot, add the garlic, chili flakes, and rosemary. Stir and cook until garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the navy beans to the pot and stir. Add the vegetable stock to the pot and stir once more. Bring the soup to a boil.
- Once boiling, ladle half of the soup into an upright blender. Add the lemon juice to the blender as well. Carefully bring the speed of the blender up to high and blend until this portion of the soup is totally liquified. Pour this liquified portion back into the pot. Season the soup with salt and pepper.
- Add the kale to the pot and bring the soup to a boil. Once the kale is slightly wilted and bright green, season the soup once more with salt and pepper, if you find it necessary. Stir in the chopped parsley as well. Serve the soup hot.
Made this tonight. SO easy yet so delicious!! Ate with a piece of avocado toast! Yum!!
One of the best soups I have made this year. I try to make a new soup about every 4-6 weeks because they are a meal. I freeze the leftovers and they do get eaten. I didn’t have kale though I usually try to keep a frozen bag of it, I had spinach so used it. Do not forget the lemon. With all of the ingredients together it is so tasty and heartwarming. I used canned beans this time but I am thinking I will cook my own beans next time. Sooooooooo good!
Delish! I whipped this up very quickly on a Sunday night using canned beans and store-bought broth and have been enjoying it for lunch all week. Mine does not look nearly as enticing as the photos but the flavor is great. In order to simplify I just used an immersion blender in one side of the soup pot, which worked just fine. Will definitely keep this in my lunch rotation!
This soup was disappointing. Way too much broth to bean ratio making it thin and tasteless. Not creamy. Not to mention, I started my blender on ‘stir’ and it exploded all over the kitchen. Big waste of ingredients.
Made this last night! While it was bubbling on the stove, I took a little taste and realized “THIS NEEDS BOUGIE GRILLED CHEESE!” So I ran up the street to the store and got some gourmet bread and white cheddar and grilled up a sandwich. Holy moly. It was so good then, and I just ate it for lunch now. Perfect for this dreary and cold weather in NC right now! Thank you so much!
I’m new to using dried beans…beyond soaking overnight, do I also need to cook/boil the beans? Or will the recipe cook them enough? I obviously don’t want them hard, but also. It mushy…thanks!
Hi Kallie,
You’ll need to cook dried and soaked beans separately before making this recipe. Lots of tutorials for cooking beans from scratch online. Once you’ve cooked the beans, you’ll need 3.5 cups of them for this recipe.
-L
Love this recipe. I have made it twice in the past 2 weeks, following your recipe exactly. The puréed beans make this rich and creamy. 1 serving is equal to 1 weight watchers smart point.
This soup is absolutely delicious, and the perfect thing for this cold, January weather. Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
Love this soup! Thank you! I love to use my hand held immersion blender and it worked perfect! Love the lemon!
Where are those beautiful canisters from ( on the shelf)?
Mine were a random find at Home Goods, but you can find similar at The Container Store.
-L
Just made this for lunch (in Madrid) with the bare minimum ingredients (I have just moved here and haven’t stocked up on herbs or, er, stock, yet) but vegetables fresh from the market and the flavour was like TRIPLE what I was expecting. Thank you!
Made this soup today. It’s perfect for a cold, rainy day like today!
Has anyone made this in the instant pot? Looking for conversion recipe.
I was thinking the same thing; I don’t have a stove, so everything has to be cooked in my electric pressure cooker, or in the microwave, so I’m going to try it in the IP-type cooker.
Just made this for dinner, so so good! and so simple. will definitely make it again
Love this recipe! I reduced it more, used seafood stock I had in the freezer and served it as the base for sous vide salmon. Absolutely delicious. Love your recipes!
This recipe is delicious!! Works with lime as well, in a pinch. That being said, I would definitely double the recipe for a family of four unless you are serving with another dish. My kids each devoured around 2 cups each. Thanks for posting!
This was absolutely delicious! I added quinoa to for some more carbs and protein. I am wondering if you think this would freeze well?
I have frozen it without the greens and it was great! I just throw the chopped greens into the pot to wilt as I reheat it.
-L
Experiencing the first signs of spring here in the Pacific Northwest and with the weather change Im feeling a touch of the cold I’ve been avoiding all winter! We had our first full day of rain after a nice stretch of sun so I took advantage of the chill and my sweetheart and I made this soup.
It was everything I wanted and then some. The brightness of lemon and the heat of chili really hit the spot (I added the zest from a lemon also because I couldn’t help myself). This will definitely go on my list of regulars. I love that it is easy enough I could whip it up on a weeknight. I have two pint jars of leftovers to look forward to and I expect they will freeze beautifully. Aww I swoon!
Thank you for sharing your creativity and passion for beautiful food!
I like all kinds of potato dumplings (distant relatives of stuffed gnocchi). Stuffed with fruits and served with syrup based sauces make great sweet dishes, with sour cabbage (e.g. kimchi) and thick savoury sauces are splendid main dish and with peanut+squash stuffing are competition to dim sum appetizers. And of course all variations one could imagine. Chases away every trace of kitchen rut !
WOW!!! I just finish the last sip of this soup and I’m so satisfied. Blending half of the soup? GENIUS!! I used small butter beans i couldn’t find navy beans. I also added minced sage cause it was in my fridge and I love it :)
I made this soup this morning! I’m almost done. I swapped black beans for the navy beans because that was the batch I made for this week, so I pureed maybe a quarter of the soup because I wanted to keep the nice colour lol. I’m very excited to eat this!
Would love to know where your black/white bowls and your two toned spoons are from.
Can’t wait to make this soup. Yum!
I picked up the bowls at a little shop on Abbott Kinney in Venice Beach. I can’t remember the name of it, and there’s no brand/clues on the bottom the bowls unfortunately.The silverware was a random find at Home Goods! Wish I could be more helpful :)
-L
Made it last night and it was delicious! Love that it’s a simple soup but with so much flavor!.. Didn’t have the fresh rosemary so had to use the dry one.. Thank you Laura!
What vegetable stock do you use? It has been so hard to find a good one because all the store bought ones have natural flavors and the only clean one I can find has the wierdest taste. Is it easy to make your own?
This looks amazing and I would love to try this if I could find a good veggie stock!
Hi Heather,
I mention this in the recipe itself, but I make my own vegetable stock exclusively and I would really recommend that you try doing that for this recipe. It’s very easy to do! I love making up large batches and freezing the extra stock in 1-litre containers for later. I link to my go-to vegetable stock recipe in the recipe headnotes as well.
-L
I made this for dinner tonight, and my husband and I enjoyed it very much! I agree with your point about the quality of ingredients being very important. I used my homemade chicken bone broth, and the flavour came through very nicely. I’m sure I’ll be making this again.
you always take the simplest ingredients and turn them into something complex and delicious. i made this for lunch last weekend and was blown away by how fancy i felt and how good it tastes. thank you!!
Laura,
I made this last night and for such a simple recipe it really won me over! It was incredible. I ended up just using an immersion blender for a consetvative amount of time as to not over blend. It seemed to work out well. Husband approved. He’s asking me to make it again already. Oh, and I had some leftover homemade croutons from the night before. That was a nice little addition, which I know from your posts is right up your alley. Thank you for the recipe!
Brittany
This soup is absolutely lovely, what a wonderful creation! I’m curious as to how yours looks so beautifully yellow?
– Josie
I think maybe my carrot just had a lot of pigment? Could just be the lighting too :)
-L
Do you think chard would work in place of the kale? I love kale, but I just got chard in my CSA box…
Chard would be delicious! Someone who made the soup tagged me on Instagram, and they used chard in their version :)
-L
chard or spinach will work just fine…so Willa combination of all 3 greens! Ive done this swap many times in many recipes.. Use what you have, use what you like but this website is now one of my faves!!!It is clear concise and this cook knows what she’s doing and clearly knows good food and nutrition
Yum! This is delicious. So simple and easy. I mixed in some roasted potatoes. I admit I thought, this is too easy! But it tasted wonderful. I used Better than Boullion not homemade too
I just made this last night — what an easy and delicious recipe! I loved how all the flavors blend into this lovely burst of freshness — great off-set to the gray of winter evenings. And the hot pepper adds just the right “pop” of heat right at the end of tasting everything else. This one is going into to the “keeper” file in my kitchen :) Thank you!
Delicious! Big hit with the fam. I served it over riced cauliflower.
This was really tasty. Perfect for the rainy days I’m experiencing. I made enough soup to last me for the week #mealprep. I doubled the amount of lemon juice and I loved it, I recommend it.
I love how simple this recipe is – always a great idea to puree half the batch for that faux-creaminess factor.
So simple and delicious! Really pleased with this recipe.
Just finished my first bowl of this wonderful perfection, I only wish I had more! I added a small head of cauliflower along with the kale…just because I needed to use it. I served it over white rice, and it was a total meal that my hubby and I both loved! Thank you so much for another nutritious, delicious meal. Alkaline, too!
Hi there- in your inages the beans don’t appear blended but I dont see instruction to add more after blending. Can you help my confusion?
Hi Meagan,
In the third step of the recipe, I describe blending half of the soup. You still get some whole beans in the soup with this method because only half of it is being liquified.
-L
Happy, happy new year to you, Laura! Thanks so much for this cozy and nourishing idea. Among all the dried beans in the pantry I’m pretty sure I don’t have white ones in there just at the moment, but I KNOW I have the better part of a bag of white lentils (a purchase inspired by some of your previous recipes …), and I can’t help but wonder if a white lentil soup could be nicely constructed along these flavour lines? (If yes, it ought to be relatively quick-cooking, at the very least ––) I think I may try it and let you know!
Hi Sherry!
I think white lentils would be great! Might add to the total cooking time, but I think they will actually be creamier than white beans (once blended). Let me know what it’s like if you go in this direction :)
-L
Reporting back: we made this soup with white lentils this week and it was super. We used about 1-1/4c of the white lentils and I think 5-6c stock. I see what you mean about the cooking time, Laura ––sorry, I had clearly scanned too quickly through your recipe and missed the ‘canned’ white beans part (assuming you were soaking and cooking the beans from scratch): yes, it probably did take longer than an essential reheat of already-cooked white beans, but even so, it wasn’t a lengthy process: maybe 20 minutes once the lentils and liquid were added? Being slightly lazy, we skipped the blender cleanup and just stuck in an immersion blender until about half was blended up, still leaving lots of nice texture. We also traded sage for rosemary and tossed some roasted butternut squash cubes on top: it was pretty delightful. Thank you again for this yummy, nourishing idea!
I made this soup tonight and it was soooo delicious!! I took the time to make the stock and prepare the dried beans which literally took it to the next level. I don’t think I will be able to go back to canned beans or boxed stock. Thank you for this recipe! It will definitely be on repeat during the winter!
How many cup equates to 1 stalk of celery? Do you mean cut up the entire stalk of celery or 1 rib of celery.’?
When I say stalk, I mean a rib. I honestly had no idea people used “stalk” to mean the entire bunch of celery. Lesson learned! Thanks.
-L
Just a note of humorous agreement; I’ve never heard of anyone referring to one little stalk of celery being the entire bunch, so this gave me a bit of a chuckle when I read the question. Perhaps a very, VERY new cook…?
Hey everyone! Just made this soup and am over-the-moon happy that I did! It is PERFECT for this cold weather here on the East coast! I have already shared the recipe with friends. Being a vegetarian has always come naturally to me, but this soup reminds me of how fun and exciting vegetarian meals can be. With each spoonful, you can feel how healthy it is. Big big fan! Stay warm! xoxo
Happy to have you back! Cheers to the new year!
What quantity do you mean by ‘a sprig’ of rosemary? Is that a few leaves.? …a portion of the leaves on the stalk?….an inch or two or three on the stalk?…I’m kind of hesitant because rosemary is such a strong herb. Can you clarify for me?
It was about 2 teaspoons once I chopped it up.
-L
A sprig is one “twig” worth. Grab a stem from the packet of rosemary and use all those leaves (sprig)
Amazing job with this soup. So easy to make. cannot wait to try it! -Joe
I have a bag of Ranch Gordo Cannellini beans just BEGGING to be turned into this soup – -thank you!!!
Hi! 4 cups of cooked beans equates to how many dred bean cups please?
Sounds absolutely delicious!
From a quick Google search, I gather that 1 part dried beans equals 3 parts cooked. So you would need 1 + 1/3 cups dried beans for this recipe. More here: https://www.thebalance.com/dried-bean-conversions-and-measurements-1388322
What a gorgeous soup! You’ve made it look both rustic and luxurious at the same time. I love recipes like this where each ingredient gets its chance to shine.
I love your trick of pureeing half the soup! My husband is obsessed with it, actually. He wants to do that with every soup we make now. haha
Lemon and rosemary is one of my favourite flavour combinations – this soup sounds perfect! I’m totally picking up an Ina Garten vibe with the quality of ingredients you’re recommending – they must be “good” quality. Now I’ll have both you and Ina in my head while I’m grocery shopping! ;)
I’m making this soup today! Perfect for the blizzard weather outside – a simple hearty soup to keep me warm & cozy! Thank you Laura, xoxo