Sausage, Kale, and White Bean Soup
Sausage, kale, and white bean soup is the answer to all of your dinner cravings — hearty, bright, savory, and healthy. I love this recipe because it’s very adaptable to the ingredients you have on hand while being rooted in the basic principles of what makes a great soup. Add this recipe to your weeknight dinner rotation and you’ll find that this one-pot, quick dinner is the answer to all of your cravings.
Can sausage, kale, and white bean soup be made in advance? Yes, this soup can be made up to 4 days in advance and stored in an air-tight container in the fridge. If you are interested in meal-prepping lunches or dinners in advance you can easily portion out and freeze sausage, kale, and white bean soup according to the instructions below.
Can sausage, kale, and white bean soup be frozen? Yes, you can easily freeze this soup to set yourself up for a wonderful and easy dinner to pull out in the future. My recommendation would be to cook the soup, let it cool completely, then portion it out into your desired amounts in freezer-safe zipper bags and freeze. When ready to eat the soup, take the bags out of the freezer and either put them in the fridge the night before or run the bag under lukewarm water until the soup thaws enough to pour out of the bag and heat gently on the stove.
How long can sausage, kale, and white bean soup last in the fridge? I recommend consuming sausage, kale, and white bean soup within 4 days of preparing it. Eating this soup as soon as possible after making it ensures the textures of the beans and kale remain as intended and don’t get mushy.
Can I substitute anything for kale in this white bean soup recipe? Yes, any flavorful, hearty green will be a perfect substitution for kale in this recipe. Consider the following:
Swiss Chard
Cabbage
Collard Greens
Spinach
Arugula
If you choose to substitute kale for spinach and arugula, cook them very briefly and gently in the soup (less than you would kale or a heartier green such as Swiss chard), because they are delicate and don’t need as much cooking time.
Can I use anything instead of sausage in this soup? Yes, there are many options for substituting sausage when making sausage, kale, and white bean soup. You can also forego the meat in this recipe, substitute chicken broth for vegetable broth, and make the dish fully vegan. If you do want to make a swap for sausage, consider the following options:
Ground beef, turkey, or chicken. Note here that you’ll be compromising some added flavor from the seasonings of the sausage. To compensate for that loss, consider adding an extra pinch of salt, pepper, and thyme to the dish.
Shredded chicken. Bonus points for this choice if it is meat shredded from a rotisserie chicken.
Pancetta or bacon. While this isn’t a very substantial choice in terms of adding protein benefits to the white bean and kale soup, this choice will add tremendous flavor to the dish.
Can you substitute any other beans in this soup recipe? Yes, you can utilize many kinds of beans in this recipe and all of them will be great accompaniments to the sausage, kale, and flavorful broth. My favorite substitutions if I don’t have white beans on hand are kidney beans, pinto beans, chickpeas, or even lentils (even though they’re technically not beans).
How to make sausage, kale, and white bean soup:
Sausage, Kale, and White Bean Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion
- 2 medium carrots
- 2 stalks of celery
- 2 cloves of garlic, sliced
- 1 can of white beans
- 1 large bunch of kale
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 4 cups of chicken broth (1 carton)
- 2 mild Italian sausage links 1 lemon
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Optional: sprinkle of freshly grated parmesan cheese for serving
Instructions
- Put a large dutch oven or pot over medium heat and add olive oil.
- Remove the sausage from the casings and add it to the pot, crumbling the meat with your fingers to evenly distribute it throughout the bottom of the pan. Let the sausage brown and render its fat for about 10 minutes, stirring the meat after about 5 minutes to ensure all sides of the crumbles get evenly brown.
- Meanwhile, chop the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic.
- Remove the sausage from the pot and set it aside in a small bowl.
- Add the onion, carrot, and celery to the pot with the rendered sausage fat, and season the vegetables with salt and pepper. Let these cook for about 5-10 minutes over medium heat, looking for them to become slightly tender but not mushy.
- Add the garlic to the pot along with the vegetables and cook for only 1 minute, ensuring you don’t burn the garlic.
- Add the thyme, Italian sausage, drained white beans, and thyme to the pot and stir all of the ingredients together. Let the soup come up to a simmer, turn the heat down to low, and cook for 10 more minutes. What you’re looking for here is for the carrots, onions, and celery to become fully tender, for the beans to become soft and almost break apart in the broth, and for all of the flavors to mingle together and become cohesive in the pot. Season with salt and pepper as needed throughout this process.
- Meanwhile, prepare your kale by cutting it into thin strips. I recommend cutting the kale pretty finely so that you can easily scoop kale in each spoonful along with other ingredients when you’re eating the soup.
- Add the kale to the soup and let the soup cook for an additional 3-5 minutes to wilt and tenderize the kale. Finish the soup with the juice from one lemon and serve right away.
- Optional: add a sprinkle of fresh parmesan cheese to the soup when serving.
Notes
The weight of Italian sausage needed for this recipe is about ½ of a pound if buying it already removed from the casings.
