Flavor-packed white bean and kale soup is the epitome of comfort food. It’s full of greens, legumes, and lots of vegetables like onion, celery, and butternut squash. Plus, this recipe is hearty and so good. Best of all, it’s ready in just 35 minutes, making it perfect for a busy weeknight.
Cozy soups and chili recipes are the best way to get through cold weather — they warm up the kitchen and make the whole house feel inviting. While I’ll happily eat soup any time of year, I especially appreciate a hot meal like my Simple White Chicken Chili with Rotisserie Chicken when I really need help warming up.
That’s why I love making this soup during the winter months. It comes together so easily, and it’s even better the next day as leftovers. For me, soup always tastes better after the flavors have had time to mingle in the fridge — don’t you think? It makes the perfect, easy lunch.
If you need more comforting soup recipes, be sure to check out my Chicken Vegetable Soup, Chicken Noodle Soup, Carrot Leek Soup, Dutch Oven Beef Stew, and Zucchini Noodle Soup.
- Olive oil — Extra virgin. Sub coconut or avocado oil if desired.
- Ground beef — I generally use 93/7% beef. I recommend draining the excess fat after browning, before adding other ingredients.
- Onion (white or yellow onion) — Either yellow or white.
- Celery — 3-4 stalks, diced.
- Garlic — This recipe calls for minced, fresh garlic cloves, but you can substitute about ¼ teaspoon of garlic powder in a pinch, if necessary.
- Butternut squash — Buy a whole squash from the grocery store or look for a pre-cut option in the produce section to save a little time. Sweet potato would be a nice alternative!
- Chicken broth — Vegetable broth or stock will also work well.
- Seasonings — I like using dried oregano, salt, and black pepper. Feel free to play around with other herbs and spices if desired; this recipe is quite flexible. You can ass red pepper flakes for some extra heat.
- Beans — I like using cannellini beans, though white navy beans would be a nice substitute.
- Kale — Be sure to remove stems before adding to soup.
- Parmesan cheese — Freshly grated parmesan cheese will have the best taste, though pre-shredded or grated will still be yummy.
Prep work:
- Chop onion, dice celery, mince garlic, and set aside.
- Peel, halve, and remove seeds from your squash. Dice it into small, half-inch cubes.
- Remove stems from kale and chop it into bite-sized pieces.
Sauté:
- Measure olive oil into a large soup pot or Dutch oven and place on the stovetop over high heat. Once the oil is hot, reduce the heat to medium and add the ground beef. Crumble meat with a wooden spoon and allow it to brown completely.
- Once all of the pink color is gone, add the onion, celery, and garlic. Mix it in and sauté with beef for approximately 5 minutes.
Boil the soup:
- Mix in your butternut squash cubes, then add chicken stock and spices.
- Cover the pot and turn the heat to high. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and simmer 15 minutes or until the veggies are tender.
Serve:
- Mix white beans and chopped kale into the soup. Once the kale has wilted, do a taste test and add more salt/pepper, if desired.
- Ladle soup into serving bowls, top with freshly grated parmesan cheese, and enjoy.
Recipe Tips
- The most time-consuming part of making this kale soup is prepping all of the veggies. You can totally chop them up ahead of time and store in the refrigerator for later! This will save you extra time on a busy weeknight.
- This kale soup recipe is super flexible and versatile. If you’d like to try a different protein, ground turkey or chicken would both work nicely!
- Be sure to remove the stems from your kale, it takes a few extra minutes but it’s worth the time. They’re tough, chewy and not the tastiest. It’s best to avoid putting them in your soup.
- Feel free to use a different leafy green in this kale soup. Spinach, Swiss chard, mustard greens and collard greens are all good substitutes for Kale.
- You can make this kale soup without the ground beef and turn it into a vegan soup.
- You can also add some herbs such as rosemary, bay leaf and thyme.
- Before serving you can squeeze a little bit of lemon juice on top of the soup.
White Bean and Kale Soup
Flavor-packed white bean and kale soup is the epitome of comfort food. It’s full of greens, legumes, and lots of vegetables. Plus, this hearty and filling recipe is ready in just 35 minutes, making it perfect for a busy weeknight.
Video
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 lb grass-fed ground beef
- 1 cup onion finely chopped
- 3/4 cup celery diced
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- 2 cups butternut squash finely diced
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- Salt and pepper
- 1 (19 ounces) can white cannellini beans drained, and rinsed
- 1 cup kale stems removed and roughly chopped
- Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Chop onion and kale, dice celery and mince garlic. Peel and dice butternut squash into half inch cubes and set everything to the side.
- In a large pot over high heat, add olive oil. When the oil is hot, turn the heat down to medium and add ground beef. Use a wood spoon and break up the ground beef while it cooks.
- When the ground beef is no longer pink, add onions, celery and garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes.
- Then, add butternut squash and mix all together. Add chicken broth, dried oregano, salt and pepper. Stir well, cover with a lid, and bring ingredients to a boil. Then, reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 15 mins.
- Finally, add cannellini beans and kale. Stir well and cook for about 5 mins or until kale is soft.
- Taste and add any extra seasonings, if necessary. Then, before serving, top each soup bowl with Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!
Notes
- Pre-chop veggies ahead of time to make for quicker weeknight prep.
- Feel free to swap the ground beef for another ground meat of your choice such as ground turkey or chicken.
- Kale stems are quite tough so I don’t recommend trying to adding them to your soup.
- Don’t have kale? Feel free to swap for any leafy greens such as spinach or collard greens.
- To store: Store leftover soup in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- To reheat: Reheat the soup in the microwave or on the stovetop until hot.
- To freeze: Freeze the soup for up to 3 months. Make sure you leave space when freezing as soup expands as it freezes.
Nutrition
Serving: 1/6, Calories: 246kcal, Carbohydrates: 22g, Protein: 22g, Cholesterol: 53mg, Sodium: 581mg, Fiber: 7g, Sugar: 4g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?
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My family enjoyed this this evening! It was easy and budget-friendly too!
Yep! This is one of my favourite recipes! It’s very easy to make and so tasty 😉
Can you bring back the original recipe with turkey and turnips? Also — why’d you change it?
Yeah so weird the recipe directions is for the old one and the ingredients are all messed up. I Was so confused lol
It’s all fixed now. Sorry about that.
Totally agree! The original soup is light and healthy and full of flavor.
It’s almost the same recipe. We just replace ground turkey for ground beef and turnip for butternut squash.
We retested this recipe because it was so old and needed it. You can still make this recipe with ground turkey instead of ground beef and you can replace butternut squash for turnip.
Do you cook it to a boil and then simmer 10-15 or boil corn 10-15?
I cool it to a boil and then simmer for 10-15 mins.
This was a delicious soup. Hearty, healthy, and perfect for fall.
Yep! It’s perfect for fall 😉
I made this for dinner last night as a spur of the moment kind of thing and it was AMAZING! I am not a very good cook by any means. I butchered meatloaf if anyone can believe that. I had to ask someone at the grocery store what turnips are and almost bought turnips leaves as I didn’t know the difference between turnips and turnip leaves… I’m very new at this.
This is the first recipe that I have put together that I LOVED! One thought though, is it possible to have the nutritional value of the recipes available? If it already is and I am missing it then someone point me in the right direction 🙂
You’re so fun… hahahahaha! I love your comment. So happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe. I just added the nutritional value on the recipe box for you. Thanks for stopping by 😉
Definitely is easy to make and pretty tasty! I would make this again
Awesome!
Second time making this and it’s such an easy meal for a cold night. I don’t change anything except add tons of kale. Good to freeze leftovers and super yummy! Thank you!
Happy you enjoy this recipe. It’s perfect for this time of the year 😉
Still making this soup years later. One of my faves. Not sure why it’s showing 4 stars, definitely 5 in my book!
Awww you’re so kind! Happy you like it. We love it too!
Do you think it’d be good to substitute sausage for the turkey? Just want some additional opinions, but this is one of my favorite recipes!
Yes, you totally can 😉
Is it possible to make this in a crockpot?
I believe so. Just add the kale 20 minutes before the end of the cooking time.
I’ve been making this soup for years and it’s fantastic. Imo there isn’t any reason to sub out the kale for a different taste – I love the kale! But I recently made this with turnips from my garden – since the plant also produced turnip greens I subbed those for the kale. If anyone else has the turnip greens left over it’s a nice way to simplify how many ingredients are needed.
I’ve never used turnip greens in my cooking. That’s awesome. I will try it next time.
So very good and I feel I am eating such a healthy soup.
Happy you liked it!