Tuscan White Bean Soup
I love soups. I don’t love all soup, but a yummy, hearty and not heavy soup is pretty much always a good idea in my book. Add some yummy bread or the right crackers and I’m one happy camper. This Tuscan white bean soup with kale is sublimely delicious and it’s actually a great starting point for any number of added ingredients.
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Tuscan White Bean Soup
Besides the comforting joy of eating soup, I also love how simple the ingredients tend to be (often what we have on hand) AND how easy it is to change/add ingredients.
For this basic Tuscan white bean soup recipe, onions, carrots, kale, and canned beans blend with the olive oil, seasonings, and stock (vegetable stock as written) for that cozy yumminess. So simple and ingredients we always have on hand.
Chicken Stock vs. Vegetable Stock in Soup
I feel as though I’ve become a bit of a pro at stock in recent years – namely owing to the fact that store bought stocks contain ingredients my husband can’t eat, so I make my own.
Stock (vegetable, chicken, or beef) are all so, so yummy. While old timey recipes for soup might call for water and then hours of cooking, stocks give you that long-cooked flavor without the long-cooked timeline.
Because this is a vegetable soup (yes, it’s vegetarian and vegan as written), a vegetable stock is delicious to use. I actually always think a vegetable stock is a yummy decision. Get more vegetarian recipes and vegan recipes here – they’re all SO delicious!
Since we aren’t vegetarian or vegan, however, we tend to have chicken stock on hand more often (or really chicken and vegetable stock since it’s make from food scrap – a good conversation for another day).
I think chicken stock can be used in place of vegetable stock in general and in this recipe, but if you’re cooking for someone who doesn’t eat meat, obviously that’s not ok.
And let me just tell you from a failed recipe experiment years ago (that my husband will never let me forget), beef broth is a completely different ball game and would, in my opinion, be too much for the vegetable soup.
I’m not saying it would be bad, but it would really be a whole new recipe at that point.
More Soup Recipes
Tuscan White Bean Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion chopped
- 1 cup shredded or chopped carrot
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 fresh thyme sprigs
- 15 oz Canned Great Northern White Beans or Cannellini Beans
- 2 cups vegetable stock*
- 2 cups finely chopped kale
- Crostini for serving
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil over medium-high in large saucepan or small soup pot. Add the onion and carrot and cook for 1 minute. Add the salt, pepper, oregano, and thyme sprigs. Continue to cook for 4 to 5 more minutes until the vegetables begin to soften.
- Add the beans with the liquid from the can. Stir in the vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer and cook partially covered for 5 minutes.
- Discard the thyme sprigs. Stir in the kale and cook about 1 minute, until wilted. Add more salt or pepper, if desired. Serve warm with crostini.
