This creamy butter bean soup with curly kale and lemon is both delicious and nutritious. Hearty and filling, it is quick and easy to make and freezes well.
Trim and slice the leek and onion, and peel and crush the garlic cloves.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and gently fry the leek, onion and garlic for 3-4 minutes until soft.
Drain and rinse just one of the tins of butterbeans and add to the pan, along with the vegetable stock. Season well with salt and black pepper. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
Use a hand blender to blitz the soup to a thick, creamy consistency (this may take 1-2 minutes, keep going!).
Drain and rinse the second tin of butterbeans and add it to the soup. Return to the heat and simmer for a further 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, remove any tough stalks from the kale and finely chop the leaves. Finely chop the parsley.
Stir the kale and parsley through the soup and add the lemon juice. Taste and adjust seasoning then serve.
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Notes
Keep blitzing the soup at step 4 until it is velvety-smooth. It can be tempting to stop after 10 seconds when it is just puréed, but the texture will be so much better if you keep going for a minute or two.For a totally smooth soup, just blitz the whole lot together at the end.If you don't have butter beans handy, this is just as good made with cannellini beans instead.