LEMON WHITE BEAN KALE SOUP

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.

When your energy is very outward like this, I find raw foods and salads don’t quite cut the mustard. You need to counter balance with earthy, rich and grounding foods. And so, this soup is the perfect answer.

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

1. Soak dried beans in ample water (they will double in size) for at least 12 hours, the drain and rinse, ready to cook.
2. In a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and cook diced onion till soft and golden.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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).
6. 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.
7. By now, your total cooking time should be about an hour and ten minutes.
8. 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.
• 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!

Recipe Adapted :  LEMON WHITE BEAN KALE SOUP @ ascensionkitchen

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