Greens and Beans Soup

Greens and beans soup is comforting on a warm winters day. Chalk full of nutritious ingredients, it may just keep the doctor away! This recipe makes a large batch so you have plenty to freeze for a quick lunch or dinner.

Jump to:

• Ingredients and Substitutions
• What type of greens should I use?
• What kind of beans should I use?
• Dried or canned beans?
• How to make Greens and Beans Soup
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• Other recipes you might like
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Ingredients and Substitutions

See recipe card below for quantities

• Olive oil - any cooking oil can be used
• Carrot
• Celery
• Leeks - white, yellow, or Spanish onions can also be used
• Garlic
• Red Swiss chard - use any greens you like such as kale, regular Swiss chard, collard greens, spinach, arugula etc.
• Savoy cabbage - the only cabbage I don't reccomend substituting with is red/purple cabbage as it will discolour the soup. Otherwise any cabbage or even bok choy works!
• Vegetable, or chicken stock
• Navy beans - feel free to use any type of beans you like
• Fresh parsley - basil, dill, and cilantro would also be delicious!
• Parmesan cheese, optional

What type of greens should I use?

The more commonly used greens for this type of soup are kale, spinach, collard greens etc. But I had a craving for cabbage (is that weird?). Savoy cabbage looks like a regular cabbage except the leaves are wrinkly. the flavour is milder then regular cabbage and the leaves are more tender but they are interchangeable in most recipes. Since cabbage isn't all that "green" I added some colourful and delicious red Swiss chard to the mix. The rest of the ingredients are pretty standard. I went with leeks because, well...if you've read many of my other posts, I just love them! You could substitute a large onion in place of the leeks.

What kind of beans should I use?

You can use any type of beans you like. I used navy but red or white kidney, black eyed peas, chickpeas...any of those work. Navy beans are my favourite for most soups because of the smaller size and chewier texture. If you prefer a creamier bean use white kidney beans.

Dried or canned beans?

Canned beans are great for convenience but if you take the time, and it's not much, cooking your own is so much better. I admit I do use canned beans often. But every time I cook my own I think "why don't I do this more often?" For my method of soaking. cooking and storing dried beans check out this post: How To Soak and Cook Dried Beans. If you do cook your own, don't throw away that liquid! You can use it in the soup mixed with some vegetable or chicken stock.

How to make Greens and Beans Soup

• Prepare all of the vegetables by rinsing, peeling and chopping. Remove the stems from swiss chard. Chop and reserve separately.
• Heat olive oil in a large pot
• Add carrots, celery, leeks, swiss chard stems and garlic and salt. Sautee over medium heat until soft.
• Add cabbage and chard leaves and stock. Simmer for 15 minutes or until cabbage is wilted.
• Add cooked or canned beans that have been drained and rinsed. Simmer for another 10-15 minutes.
• Add chopped fresh parsley and serve.
• Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese

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