white bean, kale and Parmesan soup

This white bean, kale and Parmesan soup has been upping my and my boys’ veg quota all week. We got back from two lovely weeks on holiday in New England on Sunday. I don’t know about you but I always come back from holiday wanting to force-feed myself with veg. I try my best when we’re away but the lure of fries rather than greens as a side dish is one I struggle to resist. So I atone when I return home.

We landed back to our veg patch overflowing with kale, chard and spinach as well as our first apples and courgettes. So exciting. My brain whirred into action at the sight of all that kale and having seen kale soup on the menu in Cape Cod – something to do with the early Portuguese settlers – I was craving something similar, simple but gutsy. This white bean, kale and Parmesan soup recipe took about 30 mins of hands-on cooking and gave us plenty of leftovers for the freezer. Win win.

How to turn white bean, kale and Parmesan soup into a family dinner

I know a few people panic at the thought of soup for dinner. But my boys and husband gobbled this up. We often base our dinner around a big pan of soup with some extras. I made it more of a meal by serving it with a sliced room temperature tomato and basil salad – dressed with olive oil, red wine vinegar, sea salt flakes and black pepper and topped with a ball of burrata (extra creamy mozzarella). You can see my video of my perfect caprese salad here.