Warm, welcoming, and easy to prepare, soups are the perfect first course to enjoy vegetables, grains, and legumes and fill up on plant-based proteins, vitamins, and minerals! It’s certainly one of the best ways for our body to face seasonal changes and the arrival of colder temperatures, also boosting our immune defenses! Here is my proposal for today, one of the best soups I’ve ever made with cannellini beans, lentils, and black kale! Exquisitely hearty, thick, and rich in antioxidant properties, it’s impossible not to love it! We all know how incredibly beneficial cabbages are, but perhaps you didn’t know that black kale is considered the superfood among them all, containing significant amounts of flavonoids, fiber, and other plant molecules that are health allies! Plus, it’s delicious, so perfect to enjoy for lunch or dinner, paired with toasted bread croutons and a drizzle of raw oil, especially when it’s raining outside! Extremely satisfying! It will warm your soul and body and will be greatly appreciated by the whole family!
If like me, you love rich, healthy, steaming, and comforting soups, check out these other options to experiment with:
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 4 people
- Cooking methods: Boiling, Slow Cooking, Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter
Ingredients:
- 8.8 oz dried cannellini beans
- 5.3 oz lentils
- 1 bunch black kale
- 1 carrot
- 1 leek
- 8.8 oz tomato puree
- 3.8 cups vegetable broth (to cook the lentils)
- 2 tablespoons cornmeal
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 sprig wild fennel
- 3 leaves bay
- 1 clove garlic
- 4 berries juniper
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
Tools:
⚠ THIS RECIPE CONTAINS ONE OR MORE AFFILIATE LINKS. The products I recommend are the same ones I use in my recipes; purchasing them through my blog helps support me and my work, while it costs you nothing extra!
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Knife
- 2 Pans
- 1 Wok
- 1 Ladle
- 1 Lid
Steps:
Start the night before by soaking the cannellini beans. The next day, rinse them well under running water and separately do the same with the lentils. Also, clean the vegetables: cut the leek lengthwise with a knife, remove the tip, and slice it into rings, including the green part; slice the black kale into strips, removing the stalks you can use for the vegetable broth.
In a pan, boil the cannellini beans for about 1 hour with 2 bay leaves and the juniper berries, without salting.
Add half of the green part of the leek along with a carrot cut into pieces and continue cooking.
Finally, 15 minutes before turning off, add half of the black kale. Then turn off, salt, and let it cool.
In another pan, cover the lentils with hot vegetable broth, adding the remaining green stem of the leek, a garlic clove, and a bay leaf. Cook over low heat starting from boiling for about 25 minutes.
In a large wok in the meantime, brown the remaining leek with a generous amount of oil.
Add the remaining half of the black kale and stew, covering with a lid over low heat for a few minutes, adding a few ladles of hot broth if needed.
After 2-3 minutes, add the tomato puree and tomato paste and mix.
After allowing to flavor for a few minutes, add the cooked lentils, setting aside a few ladles along with some cooking broth, which you will add as the sauce dries too much.
Continue cooking for another 10 minutes always over low heat, then add the previously drained cannellini beans, setting aside a few ladles, and let all the flavors blend for another 5 minutes.
In another container, in an immersion blender cup, blend the set-aside lentils and cannellini beans with a ladle of cooking broth.
You should obtain a semi-liquid and homogeneous cream.
Transfer the lentil and cannellini cream into the soup and stir.
Season with a few sprigs of finely chopped wild fennel
Finally add 2 tablespoons of cornmeal to give body to the soup (optional).
Turn off, adjust salt, pepper, and season with 1 teaspoon of nutmeg.
Serve still steaming with a drizzle of raw olive oil and slices of rustic bread toasted with a layer of butter and fresh rosemary.
And voilà… your cannellini lentil and black kale soup is ready to be enjoyed!
Bon Appetit from La Cucina di FeFè!
Storage
👉 You can store the cannellini bean, lentil, and black kale soup in the fridge in containers, preferably glass, suitable for refrigeration for 2-3 days. When reheating, just put it in the microwave for a few minutes or in a pot, adding a little water or leftover broth.
