Kale & Butter Bean Soup
Clock Image
Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 45 mins
A hearty winter soup that tangles up shredded kale with creamy butter beans and tender pearl barley.
This recipe is a:
See this week's box.
230 kcal
(per portion)
Ingredients you'll need
  • 1 onion
  • 1 celery stick
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1 vegetable stock cube
  • A 75g bag of pearl barley
  • A 400g tin of butter beans
  • A 100g bag of kale
From your kitchen
  • ½ tbsp olive oil
  • Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 850ml boiling water or homemade stock
You'll need
  • Pan with a lid
  • Measuring jug
Step by step this way
  • 1.

    Peel and finely chop the onion. Trim the very ends off the celery and finely slice it. Peel the carrot and finely chop it. Warm a pan for 1 min, then add ½ tbsp oil and the chopped veg. Season with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Cover. Keep the heat very low and gently sweat the veg for 5 mins till soft. Stir now and then.

  • 2.

    Peel and grate or crush the garlic. Crumble the stock cube into a heatproof jug and stir in 850ml boiling water to dissolve it (or heat up 850ml homemade stock in a separate pan). Stir the garlic into the veg with the pearl barley. Pour in the stock. Cover, turn up the heat and bring to the boil. Turn the heat back down a little and simmer for 30 mins.

  • 3.

    Slice the thick cores out of the kale. Finely shred the leaves. Drain and rinse the butter beans. Add them to the pan. Simmer, for 5 mins without the lid (to keep the kale green). The pearl barley should be tender. Taste and add more salt and pepper if it needs it. Ladle into warm bowls to serve.