My cozy green soup is such a delicious way to get healthy veggies into your diet! It’s packed with flavor, incredibly comforting, and really easy to make. This is also a great recipe for cleaning out the fridge!
I always make an effort to get lots of healthy greens in my diet. Most of the time I do that with salad. My tofu salad, eggplant salad, and vegan Caesar salad are all regular meals on my dinner rotation. But you know what I find works even better for incorporating greens in my diet? Soup!
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When you put greens into soup you cook them down, which allows you to pack WAAAAAAAY more of them into a meal. That’s why I love all my soup recipes that feature greens, like my Tuscan kale soup, collard greens soup, Swiss chard soup, and vegan cream of broccoli soup.
With today’s green soup recipe, my goal was to create a delicious soup, while cramming as much greens as possible in there. This soup features fresh kale, broccoli, and spinach, along with a couple of my favorite green herbs — fresh parsley and basil. It also has a healthy amount of garlic, a touch of lemon, and some white beans to make it creamy and filling.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Below you’ll find a list of ingredients in this recipe, with notes and substitutions. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the post to see the full recipe, including the amount of each ingredient.
- Olive oil. Other high-heat oils can be substituted if needed. You can also keep the recipe oil free by sautéing your aromatics in broth or water.
- Shallots. Red onion can be used if you need a substitute.
- Garlic.
- Crushed red pepper flakes. You’re welcome to skip these if you don’t like the heat.
- Vegetable broth.
- Broccoli.
- Kale. The recipe calls for lacinato kale, which is my favorite variety. Regular old curly kale also works fine.
- Cannellini beans. You can swap these out with other types of white beans, if you’d like, such as butter beans, navy beans, or great northern beans.
- Spinach.
- Fresh basil.
- Parsley. I like to use flat-leaf parsley, which has more flavor than curly. Curly parsley works fine too, though.
- Lemon juice. Freshly squeezed juice will give your soup the best flavor. Ditch the bottled stuff!
- Salt and pepper.
Tip: As you can see in the photos, I topped my bowls with a drizzle of coconut cream. This adds some creaminess to the soup, but mostly I did it because it looks nice. It’s by no means required!
How It’s Made
The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you’d like to skip right to the recipe!
Step 1: Heat your oil in a large pot, then add diced shallots. Cook your shallots in the oil for a few minutes, to start softening them up.
Step 2: Add minced garlic and red pepper flakes to the pot. Cook everything together briefly. Make sure to keep stirring the mixture to prevent burning.
Step 3: Add your broth, broccoli, kale, and beans to the pot. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer for a few minutes.
Step 4: Now add the spinach to the pot. Stir it in, bring the soup back to a simmer, and let it cook a bit longer.
Tip: It will seem like you’ve got way to many greens for the amount of broth you’re using. That will change after you blend the soup. Don’t give in to the temptation to add more broth!
Step 5: Once the spinach is soft, remove the pot from heat and stir in the basil, parsley, and lemon juice. The herbs will wilt quickly once they’re in the hot broth.
Step 6: Blend the soup. I like to use an immersion blender, but you can also use a regular old blender. Always be careful when blending hot liquids.
Your green soup is ready to enjoy! Ladle it into bowls and dig in. I love serving mine withs some crusty bread.
Leftovers & Storage
Leftover garlicky green soup will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for about thee days, or in the freezer for about three months.
Frequently Asked Questions
It sure is!
Absolutely! Just add more broth if it seems necessary. You can also blend a portion of the soup, for a nice mix of creamy and chunky green soup.
The broccoli should be easily pierceable with a fork, and the kale and spinach just need to be wilted.
Nearly all of the sodium comes from the broth and beans. The good news is that both of those ingredients are available in reduced sodium varieties, so use them!
Variations
- Switch up the greens. Got some other types of green veggies in the fridge? You can use them in place of the ones in this recipe. Chard, collard greens, asparagus, and peas are all great options.
- Creamy greens soup. For an extra rich and creamy version of this soup, replace about a cup of the broth with full-fat coconut milk.
- Cilantro and ginger soup. Add some fresh ginger at the same time as the garlic, and replace the basil with fresh cilantro.
More Green Veggie Soups
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Cozy Green Soup with Garlic & Basil
My green soup is such a delicious way to get healthy veggies into your diet! It’s packed with flavor, incredibly comforting, and really easy to make. This is also a great recipe for cleaning out the fridge!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ cup chopped shallots (about 1 medium shallot)
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- 1 small broccoli crown, (about 10 ounces) broken into florets
- 1 bunch lacinato kale, (about 12 ounces) stems removed and leaves roughly chopped
- 2 (15.5 ounce/439 gram) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 4 cups fresh spinach, (about 3 ounces) roughly chopped
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves, packed
- ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
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Coat the bottom of a large pot with the oil and place it over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the shallots. Sweat the shallots for about three minutes, stirring frequently, until they begin to soften.
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Stir in the garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook the mixture for about one minute, stirring constantly, until the garlic becomes very fragrant.
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Stir in the broth, broccoli, kale, and cannellini beans. You may need to add the kale in batches, stirring in each addition and letting it wilt before adding more. Raise the heat and bring the liquid to a boil, then lower the heat and let the soup simmer for eight minutes.
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Stir in the spinach, again adding it in batches if needed. Bring the soup back to a simmer and let it cook until all of the vegetables are tender, about four minutes longer.
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Remove the pot from heat and stir in the basil, parsley, and lemon juice.
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Blend the soup either using a hand blender, or by carefully transferring it to a regular blender in batches, then returning it to the pot when done.
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Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls and serve.
Nutrition
Serving: 1.5cups | Calories: 149kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 0.4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Sodium: 1073mg | Potassium: 454mg | Fiber: 9g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 6689IU | Vitamin C: 84mg | Calcium: 215mg | Iron: 4mg
