Quick, creamy, filling and delicious — need I say more? This is a great wintery soup. And easy to substitute when you don’t have precisely these ingredients. For instance, you can swap the cannellini beans for butter beans or even chickpeas. And you can mix and match the vegetables as long as you have a total of 4½ cups before you start cooking.
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large brown onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 sticks celery (1¼ cups approx, 150 grams) diced
- 2 medium carrots (1½ cups approx, 200 grams), diced
- 2 medium zucchini (1¾ cups approx, 200 grams), diced
- 2 x 400 gram tins cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (see tips)
- 4 cups (2 litres) vegetable or chicken stock
- 1 small bunch of kale, stems (and veins, if desired) removed, leaves washed and roughly chopped
- Pepper, to taste
To serve:
- Parmesan cheese (optional)
Method:
- Heat a large pot over medium heat.
- When hot, add oil and onion, and cook until onion has softened, about 5 minutes.
- Add garlic, celery, carrots and zucchini and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the cannellini beans and stock and bring to a boil, then turn heat down and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and using a stick blender or a food processor, carefully purée until smooth.
- Stir in kale and pepper, return to the stove and simmer until the kale is tender, about 8–10 minutes.
- Ladle soup into bowls and top with Parmesan, if desired.
- Enjoy!
Tips:
You can replace the tinned cannellini beans with 2⅔ cups or 480 grams freshly cooked cannellini beans or other beans.
Store cold cooked soup in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
For a vegan option, sprinkle soup with nutritional yeast in place of Parmesan cheese.
Recipe from “veggie-licious” – how to cook with lentils, chickpeas, beans, tofu and eat more plant-based foods by Caroline Trickey – Culinary Dietitian & Nutritionist, find out more here.