Tuscan White Bean & Kale Minestrone
A rustic Tuscan-style vegetable soup built on cannellini beans, kale, and tomatoes, simmered with olive oil and herbs.
This is the kind of soup Tuscan grandmothers built entire winters around — a pot of beans, whatever vegetables were on hand, and a generous glug of olive oil stirred in at the end. We keep it entirely plant-based, letting the cannellini beans do the work of making it filling without any meat or cream.
Kale goes in during the last stretch of cooking so it keeps some bite rather than turning to mush, and a bay leaf and dried oregano round out the broth without needing a long ingredient list.
Because it's built on beans and vegetables rather than cream or added fats beyond the olive oil, it's naturally lower in saturated fat, and the fiber from the beans and kale is the kind many people watching their cholesterol lean on. It also holds up well as leftovers, which makes it an easy one to batch for the week. A pot on the stove on a Sunday afternoon means lunch is covered for days, no reheating tricks required beyond a splash of extra broth.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 yellow onion — diced
- 2 carrots — diced
- 2 stalks celery — diced
- 3 cloves garlic — minced
- 15 oz crushed tomatoes — 1 can
- 2 cans (15 oz each) cannellini beans — drained and rinsed
- 6 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
- 4 cups kale — stemmed and chopped
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 tsp sea salt — plus more to taste
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp fresh basil — torn, for serving
These ingredients are standard at most major European supermarkets.
Instructions
- 1Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, and celery, and cook 6-7 minutes until softened.
- 2Stir in garlic and cook 1 minute until fragrant.
- 3Add crushed tomatoes, beans, broth, oregano, and bay leaf. Bring to a simmer.
- 4Partially cover and simmer 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- 5Stir in kale and cook another 5-8 minutes until wilted and tender.
- 6Remove the bay leaf, season with salt and pepper, and ladle into bowls topped with fresh basil.