Vegan White Bean and Kale Soup

White bean and kale soup is a flavor-packed, 30-minute veggie bean soup! It's an easy dinner recipe for any cooking skill level and made for Instant Pot or stove. Kale soup with beans and veggies makes eating healthy on a budget anything but boring!

This White Bean Soup is a reader favorite among my soup recipes. I've had several readers (who aren't vegan) message me to tell me how this soup blew their mind because packs SO much flavor for a vegan soup! So, if you have a carnivore in your house, or if you are the carnivore, give this white bean soup a go! We LOVE it with my (also vegan) Homemade French Bread. Truly, this it's heaven!

White Bean and Kale Soup Ingredients

* get full recipe below

• olive oil
• onion
• carrots
• celery
• garlic
• diced tomatoes
• canned white beans
• vegetable broth
• kosher salt, italian seasoning, crushed red pepper
• kale

It's amazing how many miles you can get from canned white beans, carrots, celery, onion, fresh kale, and a few pantry staples!

Instant Pot White Bean Kale Soup Instructions

* See full recipe below

1. Set Instant Pot on sauté and heat the olive oil.
2. Add and sauté the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic.
3. Add tomatoes, vegetable broth, white beans, and seasonings.
4. Close and lock the lid, set the knob for "sealing", and set the cooker for Manual 1 minute (or 2 minutes for extra soft beans and veggies)
5. When the cycle completes, allow 10-minute natural pressure release.
6. Carefully turn the sealing knob to release any remaining steam. Then open the lid and fold in the kale (or spinach).
7. Close the lid, but keep pressure valve in the "venting" position to avoid building up the pressure again; continue in “keep warm” mode or power off; Serve warm.

White Bean and Kale Soup Stove Instructions

1. In a 3 qt soup pot on medium-high heat, heat OLIVE OIL until it shimmers (about 2 minutes).
2. Add ONIONS, CARROTS, CELERY, and GARLIC; sauté a few minutes until slightly tender, stirring as needed.
3. Stir in TOMATOES, VEGETABLE STOCK, BEANS, SALT, ITALIAN SEASONING, and (optional) CRUSHED RED PEPPER.
4. Bring the bean soup just to a boil; then lower heat and simmer 10 minutes, stirring as needed.
5. Add KALE to the pot and continue simmering until kale is wilted.Note: you can add kale during the simmering process of the previous step if you prefer.

Why make soup in a pressure cooker?

It’s a hands-free way to cram hours of cooking into minutes. This makes it especially fun to make soups or any food that requires a lengthy simmering process. For that reason alone, it’s a great way to embed deep flavors over the short cooking time.

How long do you cook vegetable soup in a pressure cooker?

This white bean soup recipe only requires an actual pressure cook setting of 2 minutes on high pressure. I know it sounds like it's not enough time, but it's a pressure cooker. Any more than 2 minutes under pressure and canned beans fall apart and vegetables become mushy. This soup from start to finish is 30 minutes in real-time.

Generally speaking, if you don’t want to make baby food out of your dinner, you have to be very conservative with your Instant Pot settings.

Why people love this kale soup recipe

• It's totally delish-bomb! Srsly, check out the comments about this soup. Even carnivores love it!
• It's one of the easiest dinner recipes for any skill level and you can eat it for...dayssss!
• This white bean soup recipe is naturally vegan and gluten-free...yay!
• It's healthy comfort food that’s truly healthy and really comforting
• This vegetable bean soup uses everyday veggies and pantry staples, so it's budget-friendly.
• The ingredients are simple, so you can cross-utilize them with other dinner recipes.
• White bean soup is freezer-friendly.
• You control the sodium by using reduced-sodium or no-salt-added ingredients such as canned tomatoes, canned beans, and vegetable broth.

Can I sub fresh tomatoes for the canned diced tomatoes?

Sure can! You can sub 1:1 amount or add more (or fewer) tomatoes in place of the canned tomatoes. Use any tomato variety you like! Don't bother peeling the either. The skins will naturally fall off and become part of the soup.

What's the best vegetable broth for this soup?

I'm a huge fan of this reduced-sodium vegetable base. I always use it...unless I'm out. If you don't have that, this classic vegetable stock works great.

More about the white beans in this soup

You can use cannellini, great northern, or white kidney beans. White beans add fiber, texture, and flavor to this soup. If you don't have canned beans, you can cook dried beans and add them to the soup once it's cooked. Check out my no-soak method for cooking dried beans.

What's the best kale for kale soup?

You can use any kind of kale for this soup. I used curly kale for this recipe, but Dino (Lacinato) kale or red russian kale will work too. You can even substitute spinach or swiss chard for the kale if you like.

Recommended Tools for this recipe

• chef knife and cutting board
• Instant Pot 6 Qt DUO 60 or 4 quart soup pot
• serving ladle
• Airtight storage containers

White bean soup storage and reheat instructions

To store: Store remaining kale soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 5 days. I recommend glass meal prep containers because I find the locking lid to maintain freshness better than any plastic containers or zip-top storage bags.

To freeze: First, cool the soup to room temperature before freezing and transfer it into freezer-safe containers or zip-top freezer storage bags. If you use the zip-top bags, lay them flat in the freezer so they take less freezer space. Frozen soups in these bags keep well for about 6 weeks. After that, it will begin to lose flavor and may develop freezer burn.

To reheat: White Bean and Kale Soup can easily be reheated in on the stove over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, or in a microwave in short intervals on medium-high power. Either way, do not overheat as the vegetables may become mushy.

More vegan soup and chili recipes

• Tomato Soup [Instant Pot or Stove]
• Instant Pot Vegan Thai Lentil Chickpea Curry
• Chickpea Kale Soup In A Hurry
• Southwest Vegan Tortilla Soup
• Instant Pot 3 Bean Vegan Chili
• Vegan Minestrone Soup