Kale Soup

Creamy kale soup is a tasty and fulfilling 30-minute one-pot recipe that combines fresh kale leaves with tender white beans, vegetables, aromatic herbs, and a flavorful vegetable broth.

You’ll love this kale soup recipe because it’s comforting, nourishing, and simple enough for an everyday lunch or dinner.

What is Kale Soup?

Kale is a nutritious and versatile leafy green you can use to make countless soups, stews, and curries inspired by world cuisines.

Think of our delicious African peanut stew, Tortellini soup, Indian-inspired potato curry, or curry lentil soup.

They are all wholesome and tasty recipes where kale blends in spectacularly!

This easy kale soup recipe is inspired by Tuscan white bean soup or ribollita.

It combines the creamy texture of cannellini beans with tender kale leaves, aromatic Italian herbs, and a rich and flavorful vegetable broth.

Like other Italian-inspired soups such as lentil soup, chickpea soup, and pasta e fagioli, this kale soup recipe is healthy comfort food thanks to its creamy and rustic texture, rich and hearty flavor, and wholesome nutrition.

To make the soup ultra-creamy, we recommend blending some white beans before adding the kale.

It’s a simple trick we use in our black bean soup and pasta with chickpeas, and our readers love it!

Serve kale soup with a grating of parmesan cheese or non-dairy cheese, some crusty bread, homemade croutons, a whole grain, or homemade focaccia to make a nutritionally complete, satiating, and balanced meal.

Quantities are in the recipe box at the bottom of the page.

Flavor Base

A flavor base is a simple 5-minute first step to add flavor to soups and stews. This technique is called soffritto in Italian and mirepoix in French cooking.

It’s a game changer when making simple yet flavorful meals.

To make it, you’ll need:

• Extra virgin olive oil: substitute olive or avocado oil for extra virgin olive oil.
• Onion: you can use white, red, or yellow onion. Substitute shallots for onion.
• Carrot: carrots add sweetness and chunkiness to the soup.
• Celery: for freshness. Substitute a thinly sliced leek for celery.
• Garlic: we recommend using fresh garlic.

Herbs

We recommend rosemary and thyme.

Substitute Italian seasoning, sage, oregano, and bay leaves for rosemary and thyme.

You can use fresh herbs or dried herbs. If you use dried herbs, start with a smaller amount because their flavor is more concentrated than fresh herbs.

We recommend starting with 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon for each dried herb.

Kale

You can use Tuscan kale, also known as dinosaur kale, cavolo nero, or lacinato kale. Curly kale works well, too.

Remove the woodier stems before chopping the kale and adding it to the soup.

If you use pre-chopped kale, it should already be packaged without the thicker stems.

Substitute spinach, chard, bok choi, or Chinese cabbage for kale.

Canned tomatoes

Use canned diced tomatoes or crushed tomatoes for this kale soup.

Whole peeled canned tomatoes are also ok, although the soup will be chunkier.

White beans

While you can use any beans, we recommend canned white beans such as cannellini beans, great northern beans, and navy beans because they are creamy and are a perfect flavor match with kale.

You can also use dry white beans you previously soaked overnight and cook in boiling water until tender for 1 to 2 hours.

Vegetable broth

Vegetable stock is our liquid of choice to simmer the rest of the ingredients.

It adds plenty of flavor, and we like to use it instead of chicken broth or meat-based broths so that everyone can enjoy this delicious recipe.

Substitute plain water for vegetable broth.

Salt and pepper

Season kale soup with sea salt or kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a pinch of red pepper flakes.

Note: we don’t add Italian sausage or vegan sausage to the soup. However, if you want to do so, crumble it and add it at the beginning with the onion, celery, and carrot.

Serves well with

Kale soup serves well with anything bready, such as a thick slice of rustic bread, toasted, rubbed with garlic, and drizzled with good quality extra virgin olive oil.

Alternatively, you can serve it with rosemary focaccia, Italian flatbread, pita bread, or a grain of your choice; we recommend farro, barley, or brown rice.

US cups + grams measurements in the recipe box at the bottom of the page.

Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add coarsely chopped carrot, onion, and celery and sauté gently for 5 to 10 minutes or until the onion is translucent.

Tip: 5 minutes is enough to make a great soup; 10 minutes will make the soup even more flavorful.

Add grated garlic, rosemary, and thyme and fry for 1 more minute or until fragrant.

Add drained and rinsed white beans, canned tomatoes, vegetable broth, salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes.

Stir with a wooden spoon, bring to a boil, and simmer for 15 minutes on medium heat.

In the meantime, prep the kale. If you have whole kale leaves, we recommend separating the leaves from the woodier stems.

Chop the leaves into bite-size pieces. Set aside.

Blend about 2 cups of soup with an immersion blender or with a standing blender.

Tip: blending some of the soup makes the whole dish ultra-creamy. But don’t blend all of it; it’ll lose its rustic chunky texture.

Add chopped kale and finish simmering for a few more minutes until the kale is tender.

Taste and adjust for salt and let it cool down for 10 minutes to allow flavors to meld.

Tip: you can add more broth if you like a thinner soup.

Kale soup is a fulfilling and nourishing recipe you can have as a main meal sided with bread or grains.

Serve it in a bowl with a thick slice of crusty bread, toasted, brushed with garlic, and drizzled with good quality extra virgin olive oil.

You can sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese or non-dairy parmesan.

Alternatively, you can top it with a dollop of Greek-style yogurt or non-dairy yogurt and a squeeze of lemon juice.

You can also serve it with:

• No-knead focaccia bread: the perfect match for soups to top up the leftovers in your bowl.
• Homemade croutons: for added crispiness to your soup.
• 10-minute crostini bread in the oven or air fryer.
• Easy tomato bruschetta: garlic brushed and aromatic side dish.
• Boiled whole grains like farro, barley, quinoa, or brown rice.

Take our kale soup recipe as a guideline, and change the legumes or vegetables based on what you have available at home.

Substitute lentils or chickpeas for the white beans. Or add chopped potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, broccoli, and cauliflower florets for even more flavor.

For instance:

Rustic Lentil Soup

Lentil soup is another favorite in our home. We make it with green or brown lentils and kale.

Their earthy taste and excellent texture make this recipe a crowd-pleaser.

Check out our lentil soup recipe.

Tuscan White Bean Soup

Tuscan white bean soup, or ribollita, is a classic traditional soup from Tuscany, Italy. It’s hearty, tasty, and nutritious, with plenty of leafy greens, white beans, and thyme.

Check out our Tuscan white bean soup recipe.

Lentil vegetable soup

This one combines earthy lentils with a rich tomato-based broth, veggies, and tender spinach leaves.

Check out our lentil vegetable soup.

Questions

Make ahead: kale soup is an excellent meal prep recipe because its flavor improves as the soup sits in the fridge. It’s also very easy to store and freeze.

Refrigerator: let the soup cool down at room temperature, transfer it to an airtight container, and store it in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Freezer: Let it cool down completely at room temperature, transfer it into a freezer-friendly container, and freeze it for up to 3 months.

Thaw: defrost kale soup in the refrigerator over several hours, or use a microwave’s thawing function.

Reheat: you can reheat it in a small pot with a spoonful of water, or you can do so in the microwave. It’s best not to reheat the soup multiple times.