I’d post the steps to this recipe, but there’s so few it’s almost not worth posting at all. It’s less a recipe than a “dump it in the pot and eat” ingredient list. This recipe for Kale and White Bean Soup saves me in every way it can: when I’m tired and can’t cook, when we have even less money to spend on food, when I want something warming and nourishing.
A few caveats: kale is one of those leafy greens that contains a measurable amount of oxalates. While kale is enormously healthy for you with its antioxidants and protective effects against ovarian cancer it does have those pesky oxalates which are known to inhibit mineral absorption–particularly calcium. Kale also contains goitrogens and may contribute to thyroid problems if eaten in large amounts by susceptible individuals. Of course, I think that the benefits of eating cooked kale (cooking decreases any potential problems with oxalates or goitrogens) far outweigh the detractions posed by oxalates and goitrogens.
At any rate, if you want to try this simply, easy, nourishing and cheap dish you’ll need:
- 2 Cups White Beans, Soaked Overnight
- 4-5 Carrots, Peeled and Chopped
- 4-5 Celery Stalks, Chopped
- 1 Onion, Chopped
- 5 Cloves Garlic, Chopped
- 3 Tablespoons Butter or Ghee from Grass-fed Cows
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 2 Quarts Homemade Chicken Stock (Yes, from the bones because that’s where all the minerals are!)
- 1 Bunch Kale (I prefer Blue Dino)
- Salt and Pepper to Taste
- You’ll need to soak the beans overnight–at least and you can soak them up to 48 hrs or so if you need to. You should be in the habit of soaking all your grains and legumes as these plant foods contain antinutrients called phytates which inhibit mineral absorption. By soaking the foods, you remove the antinutrients releasing the full nutritive power of the food as well as increasing its overall digestibility.
- Drain the beans and cook them on low in water overnight in the crockpot. Drain the beans and add all ingredients to your slow cooker except the kale which you’ll add at the last minute. Cook on low all day long.
- Return home from a hard day at work, add the kale to the pot and prepare a simple salad as an accompaniment to the meal. Serve when the kale is cooked, but still bright green.
- This dish–with its use of both beans and kale–would not be nearly as nourishing were it not for proper preparation.
Lovage Soup for Spring
Moroccan Preserved Lemons
campfire roast chicken with flowering onion and dill
Our Daily Bread: No-knead Sourdough
A Story of Recovery (and a Recipe for Grain-free Carrot Cupcakes with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting)
A Recipe for Beet Kvass: A Deeply Cleansing Tonic
I make a vegan version of this soup; in my house it’s called “it’s Tuesday and the CSA pickup is tomorrow and I’ve got all these veggies to use up to make room for the new stuff” soup. I can’t imagine life without kale. Well, I can’t, but it’s not nearly so nice.
(I do confess, though, I rarely soak my beans.)
Debbies last blog post..got some time to waste?
That is, “I CAN, but it’s not nearly so nice.” Good thing I don’t type for a living. Oh wait, I do.
Debbies last blog post..got some time to waste?
I usually don’t drain my soaked beans since I use spring water to soak them. Is this a problem? And does anyone know why beans would stay hard after soaking and cooking? Is there a connection with not draining the soaked beans?
Beans can stay hard after cooking if you have hard water. I am new to this site and cooking, so I don’t know if this idea is frowned upon or not, but adding a bit of baking soda to the water helps. Also have heard not to add anything acid to the water until the beans are cooked as it can lengthen cooking.
This soup sounds fabulous and healthy to boot. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Heidi / Savory Tvs last blog post..French Onion Soup
How funny- I made up a soup quite similar to this! I add leftover grass-fed ground beef (browned from the night before with onions/garlic) and some diced tomatoes (organic in a BPA free can will work in a pinch) and some gluten-free rice penne pasta (about a handful). It’s like pasta fagioli. Yum!
I just made this soup, but added a splash of apple cider vinegar at the end. Perfect.
Am I understanding these steps correctly?
1. Soak beans overnight (then drain)
2. Cook beans overnight (then drain)
3. Cook beans more with the rest of the ingredients (minus the kale) all day
It just seems like a lot of cooking with the beans.
Thanks!
Yummy and nice hearty warming winter soup. I love all beans and bean soups but white beans are the cream here in our home.
ANGIE: in Answer to your question above. you would soak the beans over night, and drain. Then pop them in the slow cooker with all of the other ingredients except the Kale that is save to the last part of the cooking .
You do not have to cook the beans twice
Jenny -
A great serving idea for this soup would be to add some milk, cream, butter, cheese, dairy kefiran, or I guess even powdered eggshell to go along with it.
That way, the calcium in the garnish can form a precipitate with the oxalic acid during mastication or digestion (this process, I’ve read, is responsible for that ‘mealy’ texture you get when eating rhubarb pie with cream), and no longer be bioavailable to do real damage. I’m glad you don’t consider goitrogens and oxalate to be too terribly alarming as some of the healthiest foods out there contain one or the other (e.g. green tea for oxalate, broccoli for goitrogens).
Anyway, I just got my slowcooker back from repair, and I am overpoweringly excited to get back in business. Soup is my bread and butter, and, breaking my metaphor, I don’t have anything to eat with my bread without soup.
On a sidenote I figured I would complain about how a friend of mine told me that 5.50 for a gallon of raw milk from the farmer’s market is “expensive,” as I actually consider that to be dirt-cheap, given that a halfgallon of semi-UHT Organic Valley is around $5.00. I told him that he’ll pay for every penny he saved on “Dean’s” later on.
Cheers.