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This white bean soup with kale stars cannellini beans, potatoes, and tarragon in a lightly creamy broth. Ready in just 35 minutes, this healthy soup recipe makes perfect comfort food dinner for any night of the week.
Here’s a healthy soup that always gives me life in the winter months: this white bean soup recipe, full of humble ingredients and big flavor! Tender white beans float in the cozy broth with soft potatoes and leafy kale.
What I love most is that lemon zest lends brightness and tarragon brings an herby nuance. It’s also made 100% of vegetables, making a plant-based dinner idea that feels hearty and satisfying. The first time I made it I tested it out on a few friends and family, and they immediately asked for the recipe!
Ingredients You’ll Need for White Bean Soup
This humble white bean soup is built for speed. In fact, it takes just over 30 minutes to make (or less, if you’ve got quick knife skills). Because it’s speedy, I created it to use canned white beans, of you can use your own pre-cooked beans. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Vegetables: onion, carrot, garlic, yellow potatoes, and kale: These hearty vegetables add body and fiber to the soup.
- Olive oil: Used for sauteing.
- Vegetable broth: Veggie broth adds savory flavor (you can also use homemade broth).
- Canned or cooked white beans: Use canned cannellini, Great Northern, navy, or butter beans. You can also cook dried beans in a Dutch oven or make Instant Pot beans. Use 4 ½ cups cooked white beans to substitute for the 3 15-ounce cans.
- Lemon zest: This adds a brightness that’s essential.
- Dried tarragon: This absolutely makes the flavor! This spice is worth grabbing at the store if you don’t already have it on hand. In a pinch, dried sage, dill or thyme can stand in.
Choosing Your White Beans
You can use any type of white bean in this recipe! I like using cannellini beans because of their creamy texture and large size. Here are the types of white beans you’ll find at the store:
- Cannellini: Cannellini beans (can-a-leen-ee) are an Italian variety that are large and kidney shaped, with a creamy texture and mild flavor.
- Great Northern: These are smaller than cannellini with a brighter white color. They have a mild flavor with a nutty undertone.
- Navy: Navy beans are the smallest of the types of white beans. They have a mild flavor and were a popular staple for the US Navy in the early 1900’s.
- Butter: Butter beans are the largest of the white bean family, with a creamy, rich flavor. Butter beans are sold in many grocery stores dried and canned. Their large size can make for an interesting look in this soup!
Building Layers of Flavor
The key to this tasty white bean soup is blending the broth to get it lightly creamy. Here are a few notes on that step:
- The key to the lightly creamy broth: Take out 3 cups of the soup and blend it, then return it to the pot! You can use a standard blender or immersion blender for this job.
- Want to skip it? The soup still tastes great! I prefer it with the textured broth, but it’s great either way.
What to Serve With White Bean Soup
What to serve with soup? There are lots of ways to make it into a healthy meal! I like pairing it with a fresh salad with a little extra protein, or a piece of crusty or toast. Here are some ideas:
- Add a fresh salad like goat cheese apple salad, spinach salad, kale salad, or Italian salad
- Serve with bread like artisan bread, skillet cornbread, or garlic toast
- Add muffins like cornbread muffins or popovers
- Try with a sandwich like gourmet grilled cheese, baked grilled cheese, or avocado club sandwich
Leftover Store & Make Ahead Tips
I created this white bean soup recipe to make a big pot of soup with 4 to 6 ample servings. (I originally made a 4 serving version of it, but the pot disappeared too quickly!) In my opinion, if you’re going to make a pot of soup, you’ve got to have leftovers: and these keep well.
Store leftovers refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months. This works great for lunches the next day, and the flavor gets even better over time!
Dietary Notes
This white bean soup recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! Cook 1 ½ cups dried white beans using your preferred method (stovetop, slow cooker, or Instant Pot) to yield about 4 ½ cups cooked beans. Use those in place of the three cans.
While tarragon really makes this soup special, you can substitute dried sage, thyme, or dill in a pinch. Start with 1 teaspoon and adjust to taste. The flavor won’t be quite the same, but it’ll still be delicious.
Yes! This soup actually improves after a day in the fridge. Make it up to 3 days ahead and reheat gently on the stovetop, adding a splash of broth if needed to thin it out.
Spinach, Swiss chard, or collard greens all work well. Add spinach at the very end since it wilts quickly, or add heartier greens like collards a few minutes earlier so they have time to soften.
It freezes well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
Cozy White Bean Soup
This white bean soup with kale stars cannellini beans, potatoes, and tarragon in a lightly creamy broth. Ready in just 35 minutes, this healthy soup recipe makes perfect comfort food dinner for any night of the week.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Soup
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Soup
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large sweet yellow onion, finely diced
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and finely diced
- 3 celery ribs, thinly sliced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound yellow or Yukon Gold potatoes, small diced
- 3 15-ounce cans (4 ½ cups cooked) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (or Great Northern, navy, butter or other white bean)
- 2 quarts vegetable broth
- 1 ½ teaspoons lemon zest
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried tarragon*
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste
- Fresh ground black pepper
- 5 to 6 leaves Tuscan kale, chopped into small pieces
Instructions
- Prep the fresh ingredients (see above).
- In a Dutch oven or large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, and celery and sauté for 5 minutes.
- Add the minced garlic and cook until just browned, about 1 minute. Add the potato, drained and rinsed white beans, vegetable broth, lemon zest, dried tarragon, kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
- Remove 3 cups of the hot soup (including broth and vegetables) and carefully blend it in a blender or immersion blender. Then pour it back into the pot to create a lightly creamy broth (you can skip this step if you prefer and it still tastes great!).
- Stir in the chopped kale and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes more. Taste and add any additional salt, to taste (depending on your brand of vegetable broth). Eat immediately or save leftovers refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months.
Notes
*I highly recommend grabbing dried tarragon at the store if you don’t regularly stock it in your pantry: it makes the soup! In a pinch, substitute dried sage or thyme.
4 serving version: Simply multiply everything by 0.75 below and it comes out to round numbers. For the vegetable broth, you can use 1 quart broth and 1 cup water.
I made this soup last night. I love plant based recipes and we are trying to eat more beans! I also love recipes that have enough leftovers for a second meal :) I’m sure you hate reading reviews in which the recipes are completely altered, I did make just a couple of tweaks. I could not find navy beans so I used cannellini beans, added more carrots and celery than called for just for more veg, added the juice of 1/2 of the lemon after zesting it and only 1/2 teaspoon of the tarragon after reading the reviews. I don’t use tarragon frequently enough to be familiar with it, so I decided to go lightly. I think the 1/2 tsp was plenty, could definitely taste it but it was not overpowering. This was definitely a warm, hearty meal on a cold day. Thank you for the recipe.
Could I leave out the potatoes and substitute a different hearty vegetable? I deplore potatoes but would love to make this soup thanks.
Yes, you could just omit if desired
I cannot have Kale can I substitute with spinach?
Absolutely, that would be perfect here!
Love this soup! Have made it many times. I’ve read some of the reviews and disagree with the negative comments. Don’t change a thing, follow the recipe. The first time I made it, I thought more beans would be better. I put more next time, ruined it. My favorite soup and not difficult to make. Thank you for the recipe.
Thank you for the comment!
I’ve looked at a lot of your recipes. The kale soup had way too much tarragon. Over powered the rest of the ingredients.
Wanted to comment. I’m a cook and always looking for inspiration. This soup recipe was just ok. My husband, who isn’t fussy commented. Down size the tarragon.
Good luck. Happy New Year…keep cooking.
Outstanding flavor! Love this soup!
My guy LOVED this. He is vegetarian, a bit curmudgeonly :)
and usually just says “there’s nothing wrong with it” when I make bean soup.
With this one,however, he must have said three times “this is SO good!”
Thanks for all your recipes.
So glad to hear that! Thank you for making :)