Bean and Lentil Soup with Kale
A hearty tomato-based soup made with beans, lentils, kale, and a deep mushroom broth. More importantly, it freezes well so you always have a good meal at the ready.
For the many of you in the midst of a summer heat wave, I realize posting a big, wintry soup right now might seem a little unhinged. I cooked it this week out of necessity. I tend to keep our freezer full of frozen homemade soups, sauces, dumplings, and anything else that can come together into a quick, feel-good meal when I’m short on time or motivation. It’s a system I absolutely rely on, but my freezer supply was completely tapped out, and building it back up started here. Soups like this are some of the easiest homemade meals-in-a-bowl that I know, whatever the season. This one is full of beans, lentils, all manner of vegetables, and a robust mushroom-tomato broth. Top it with a swirl of good pesto and you've got a kiss of summer, and a go-to lunch.
Ingredient Notes
A few notes related to the main ingredients in this soup.
- Beans: I cooked both the beans and the lentils from dried here. I wanted both to retain structure and a bit of firmness throughout the cooking and simmering of the soup, and that’s never going to happen using canned beans or lentils. The Santa Maria Pinquito beans were calling to me as I scanned the pantry, and they held up wonderfully. Their bean broth combined especially well with the mushroom powder to form the base of the soup. Other types of beans I suspect would work well with this soup: Alubia Blanca beans, cannellini, cranberry or borlotti beans, Good Mother Stallard.
- Lentils: The key here is choosing a lentil that will its shape. A lot of lentils really break down over time, especially in a soup that will be reheated. I rarely go wrong with French green lentils / Lentils du Puy, and this was no exception. I cooked them in their own pot, and then drained the remaining broth before adding along with the beans to the soup.
- Mushroom powder: You can buy mushroom powders, but I tend to make my own by blending dried mushrooms in a grinder or high-speed blender. I tend to use a lot of porcini mushroom powder in particular, and it’s the mushroom I went for here. I wanted an assertive mushroom broth that could stand up to the tomatoes, beans, lentils, and kale and not get lost.
As a side note, related to turning ingredients into powders, Andrea Nguyen turned me onto one of my favorite kitchen appliances when I was telling her I was struggling to get a true powder when grinding chiles into powder. She sent me a link to the Cuisinart SG-10 Electric Spice-and-Nut Grinder and I’ve never looked back. Turns everything to the consistency of baby powder. - Kale: Use what you have. A combination of lacinato and curly kale, stemmed and chopped well worked nicely here. Add it toward the end of cooking so it keeps some structure and brightness.
Other Soups & Stews Like This
Here are a few other soups and stews that are freezer-friendly and full of all the things you want in a one-bowl meal. I make this ribollita every other month or so, using day-old sourdough, it freezes nicely. The fragrant saffron and fennel combination in this white bean soup make it special, just a tad offbeat and unexpected (in a good way!), it also freezes well. And if you just want to poke around a bit, here’s a list of all the soup recipes.
One rule of thumb I follow is I don’t usually freeze soups with noodles or pasta in them. The pasta just tends to get overcooked on reheating. And all of these welcome a poached or fried egg on top as a bonus!
Other Freezer-friendly Staples
- This mushroom ragu is a bit of an effort, but makes future pasta nights easy.
- Load up on summer basil and keep this pesto in the freezer year-round.
- Keep pie dough at the ready for easy pies, tarts, galettes, and hand pies.
- Related, peach hand pies, mushroom hand pies, and apple cinnamon hand pies - ready to bake from the freezer.
- This mushroom lasagna freezes well. The instruction are on the page.
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Bean and Lentil Soup with Kale
I used Santa Maria Pinquito beans here. They’re small, pebble shaped, stay quite firm, and have a substantial broth full of flavor and body. As I mention up above, other beans from my pantry that I’d consider for this soup: Alubia Blanca beans, cannellini, cranberry or borlotti beans, or Good Mother Stallard beans. To make mushroom powder, blend dried mushrooms in a high-speed blender or spice grinder.
- 1 pound dried beans (see head notes)
- 1 1/2 cups French lentils du Puy
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 medium onions, chopped
- 2 leeks, greens trimmed, chopped
- 2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, very thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons porcini mushroom powder
- 1 28- ounce can whole tomatoes, drained
- 2-3 whole dried chiles, or 1/2 teaspoon Chile flakes
- 3-4 cups chopped kale, stems removed
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Cook the beans (per package instructions) until tender and reserve the cooking liquid. I like to add a little 2-inch piece of comb seaweed to my beans while they’re cooking, but you don’t have to. At the same time, in a separate pot, cook the lentils (per package instructions), strain off any additional liquid, and give the lentils a quick rinse. Set both aside.
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In your largest soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Stir in the onions, leeks, salt, and celery. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions start to brown a bit and everything starts to meld together - this typically takes 10-15 minutes or so. Stir in the garlic, wait a minute, and then stir in the mushroom powder. Cook for another minute, stirring continuously, before adding the tomatoes, beans, lentils, and 3 1/2 cups of the reserved bean broth. If you don’t have that much broth, add the equivalent amount of water. Add the whole chiles or chile flakes and bring to a simmer. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt if needed, and stir in the kale.
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Allow to simmer for 15 minutes or so, remove the whole chiles, and serve topped with any of the following topping ideas: pesto, crumbled goat cheese, feta, or a dollop of salted yogurt, an egg, toasted pepitas and/or pine nuts, a drizzle of olive oil.
Serves 8-10.
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