Name: Creamy Winter Soup with Potatoes and White Beans
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 50 min
Ingredients: 2 Tablespoons olive oil; 2 celery stalks (~1 cup, chopped); 3 carrots (~1 cup, chopped); 1 yellow onion (diced); 4 cloves garlic (minced); 6 red potatoes (~5 cups, chopped); 2 teaspoons dried rosemary; 1 teaspoon sea salt; 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes; 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder; 4 cups water or vegetable broth; 2 cups oat milk; 2 cans cannellini beans (drained and rinsed); 1/2 bunch of kale (~3 cups, de-ribbed and roughly chopped)

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This past weekend was a very unusually warm one in Cincinnati. It gave us hope that winter is coming to an end—but I’m always quick to remind myself that winter in the Midwest isn’t quite over. I know we have many more cold, cloudy days standing between us and beautiful summer days.

Around this time is when it’s practically impossible to remember that winter does come to an end. For those seemingly endless cold days, I made this winter soup recipe! It’s:

Hearty
Warm
Comforting
Basically everything you’d want out of a soup on a cold, cloudy winter day!

About this winter soup recipe

This healthy winter soup is primarily made with seasonal winter veggies, including the kale and potatoes. I don’t put a lot of stock into the concept of “superfoods” (personally, I shoot for a wide variety of plants as opposed to trying to eat a large quantity of superfoods), but let’s talk about the “superfood” in this soup: kale.

Kale is nutrient-dense, which basically means you get more bang for your buck when you eat this food (hence why it’s considered a superfood). It contains:

Fiber
Calcium
Iron
Vitamin A
Vitamin C
Vitamin K

As a person living a plant-based lifestyle, I try to get more iron and calcium wherever I can—and kale is a great way to do that!

You probably already know that calcium is important not only when you’re a growing child, but also as an adult. It helps our nerves carry messages and helps release hormones and enzymes.

According to the National Institute of Health, most people don’t get enough calcium from what they eat, but they won’t actually realize that deficiency until later.

If you don’t eat enough calcium, your body takes it from your bones—which then can cause you to lose teeth and puts you at an increased risk for bone fractures and osteoporosis. Not fun at all.

How to derib and prepare kale

Kale can be kind of confusing if you’ve never worked with it before. You’ll want to separate the leaves from their stalks—a process called de-ribbing.

The quickest way to derib kale is to hold the kale leaf vertically in the air with the end of the stalk at the top. Hold the end of the stalk in one hand, wrap your other hand around the stalk just below your top hand, and pull down. Voila! You’ve efficiently taken the leaves off the stalk.

If the leaves are tougher to remove, you can also fold the leaf in half lengthwise on your cutting board to expose the stalk on one edge, then slice in a line between the stalk and the leaves. This method is also better if you want to preserve the shape of the leaves (if you won’t be shredding or chopping them, as we’re doing in this recipe).

Next, wash and chop it. The leaves don’t have to be finely chopped for this recipe, but I prefer my soup ingredients to be bite-sized at least.

Kale has a lot of fiber, and this can cause gastro-intestinal irritation for some people. If this is you, I recommend cooking the kale a little longer and avoiding raw kale if you can.

There are tricks to make raw kale more digestible, but I’m sure we’ll get to those in a different post.

Okay, let’s look at this recipe!

How to make winter vegetable soup

This recipe is a breeze to make, which comes in so handy on weeknights when you just want something quick, yet warm and hearty to fill you up.

First, derib and chop your kale, then chop all your other veggies. That includes 6 potatoes, 2 celery stalks, 3 carrots, and an onion. Mince 4 cloves of garlic, too.
Then, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Once it’s hot, add the celery, carrots, onion, and garlic and cook for 8-10 minutes, until the onions are mostly clear and the vegetables are slightly softened.
Add potatoes and seasonings and sauté for additional 2-3 minutes.
Next, add water or vegetable broth, increase heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil.
Once boiling, reduce the heat to low. Cover the pot and simmer for 25-30 minutes, until potatoes are fork-tender.
Then, add two cans of white beans, chopped kale, and two cups of oat milk. Simmer for additional 5 minutes until kale is softened.
Serve immediately with your favorite sides! I’d suggest saltine crackers, cornbread, or slices of toast.

A few ways to customize this winter soup recipe:

You can definitely add more carrots, celery, onion, or garlic if you so choose. If you add more, you may need to saute them a little longer, but just remember that you’re going for almost translucent onions, and it’s hard to go wrong!

If you like your beans very soft (or have trouble digesting beans), I recommend putting them in when you add the water/vegetable broth. Putting them in before the soup simmers makes them mushier, while putting them in after the soup simmers for 15-20 minutes gives them a firmer texture.

I used oat milk, but you could use any plant-based milk. Oat milk is my preference because it is more environmentally friendly, non-dairy (obviously), and it has a creamier consistency than other plant-based milk. I do not recommend using coconut milk because it will make this soup too sweet.

Finally, whether you use water or vegetable broth is completely up to your preference! Vegetable broth will add more flavor, but I tend to be okay just adding water. It’s much cheaper that way 🙂

That’s all, friends! We hope you enjoy this hearty winter vegetable soup, and that it helps keep out the chill while we wait for spring to finally arrive. If you’re looking for other warming dishes, try our Homemade Vegan Chili, Hearty Roasted Winter Vegetables, or Creamy Butternut Squash Soup!

If you try this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments—and as always, tag us on Instagram @plum_savory with your lovely creations!

Sending warm happy thoughts your way,
Elana