One of my favorite soups of all time: a hearty white bean soup filled with mixed fresh herbs and lots of lemon juice. Comforting, cozy, and a truly perfect nourishing meal.
This soup recipe is from NYT cooking, with an impressive 5 stars from over 19K reviews. Once you try this- you’ll understand why. It’s simple to make, but the furthest from plain; definitely one of those recipes that really emphasizes “less is more”.
Feel free to mix up your ground meat, I use turkey; chicken or beef would be good as well. The greens can also be changed.. I used collard greens, but kale, mustard greens, or even the tender leaves of Swiss chard would be incredible.
Full recipe below! Get ready to crave this all winter long.
Lemon White Bean Soup with Fresh Herbs (from NYT Cooking)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 bunch sturdy greens, such as kale, broccoli rabe, mustard greens, Swiss chard, or collard greens
1 tablespoon tomato paste
¾ teaspoon ground cumin, plus more to taste
⅛ teaspoon red-pepper flakes, plus more to taste
½-1 pound ground turkey
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1 quart chicken stock
2 (15-ounce) cans white beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup combination of chopped fresh, soft herbs, such as parsley, mint, dill, basil, tarragon, chives or a
Fresh lemon juice, to taste
Step 1
Heat a large pot over medium-high for a minute or so to warm it up. Add the oil and heat until it thins out, about 30 seconds. Add onion and carrot, and sauté until very soft and brown at the edges, 7 to 10 minutes.
Step 2
Meanwhile, rinse the greens and pull the leaves off the stems. Tear or chop into bite-size pieces and set aside.
Step 3
When the onion is golden, add tomato paste, ¾ teaspoon cumin and ⅛ teaspoon red-pepper flakes to the pot, and sauté until paste darkens, about 1 minute. Add turkey, garlic, ginger and 1 teaspoon salt, and sauté, breaking up the meat with your spoon, until turkey is browned in spots, 4 to 7 minutes.
Step 4
Add stock and beans, and bring to a simmer. Let simmer until the soup is thick and flavorful, adding more salt if needed, 15 to 25 minutes. If you like a thicker broth, you can smash some of the beans with the back of the spoon to release their starch.
*You can leave the beans whole for a brothier soup.
Step 5
Add the greens to the pot and simmer until they are very soft. This will take 5 to 10 minutes for most greens, but tough collard greens might take 15 minutes. (Add a little water or more broth if the broth gets too reduced.)
Step 6
Stir herbs and lemon juice into the pot, taste and add more salt, cumin and lemon until the broth is lively and bright-tasting. Serve topped with a drizzle of olive oil and more red-pepper flakes, if desired.
I hope you love this recipe!!! I’ve ranked it my second favorite soup of all time- following Italian Wedding soup (recipe is already on my Substack).
Enjoy friends, have a wonderful day <3
With love,
Abigail