My lunches during Veganuary have often featured lovely homemade soups made at the touch of a button in my trusty Optimum ThermoCook. (If you haven’t heard about the ThermoCook, read my review here). However, I’m conscious that soup isn’t always as protein-packed as it could be, so have been sneaking beans, lentils, quinoa, peas and all sorts of other vegan protein sources into my soups.

This one was particularly delicious – against all the odds. When I was shopping for my Cranks Supperclub in December I thought I had picked up 4 tins of chickpeas. Distracted by a toddler piling chocolate biscuits into the trolley, it turns out I had picked up 4 tins of butter beans instead. Eek! Cue a very last-minute chickpea expedition hours before guests arrived.

All was well, but the tower of butter bean tins have been staring at me ever since. A soggy half-used bag of curly kale looked sorry for itself in the fridge, and voilà – this Curly Kale & Butter Bean Soup was born.

I think of butter beans as being a bit… well… 1980’s vegetarian hippy, (sorry), but in fact they are delicious, and I particularly like them blitzed into a soup like this. They turn the soup creamy and velvety, not at all what you expect from a vegan soup. And of course with their high-protein, low-fat credentials paired with the nutrient-rich curly kale superfood, this soup isn’t half good for you!

If you don’t own an Optimum ThermoCook (yet…. get it on your Christmas list for next year!), the instructions in the printable recipe below are for making it the old-fashioned way on the hob. But if you do, (lucky you), instructions for making this in a ThermoCook are underneath the recipe.

Print Curly Kale & Butter Bean Soup Prep Time 5 mins Cook Time 20 mins Total Time 25 mins Course: Soup Servings : 5 people Author : Kate Ford | The Veg Space Ingredients 2 tbsp olive oil

1 leek, trimmed and finely chopped

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1 potato, peeled and roughly cubed

100 g curly kale, tough stalks removed

2 x 400g tins butterbeans, drained and rinsed

1 litre water

4 tsp stock powder

handful fresh parsley Instructions Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the leek, onion and garlic. Fry gently for 3-4 minutes until soft. Add the potato, curly kale and butterbeans, then the water and stock powder. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Taste, and season with salt and pepper as required. Add the parsley, then blitz with a hand blender or in a high-speed blender, and serve immediately.

To make in an Optimum Thermocook:

Place the oil, leek, onion and garlic into the jug, select CHOP. Then choose the SAUTÉ function for 5 minutes. Add the potato, kale and butterbeans, then the water and stock powder. Choose CHOP and then the THICK SOUP function. Taste then season with salt and pepper as necessary. Add the parsley then choose the SMOOTHIE function. Serve immediately.

Don’t forget to pin the recipe for later, or to share with friends → → → → →

There are plenty of similarly quick and easy soup recipes in my new book, ‘Vegan in 15‘*. Hop over to Amazon for a look. Thanks for your support!

*Affiliate links

And if you haven’t yet signed up, you can get a monthly roundup of all my recipes and giveaways delivered to your inbox absolutely free – just click here to subscribe to The Veg Space monthly newsletter.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

For more Optimum ThermoCook soup recipes from blogging friends, take a look at:

I’m linking this post up with two blogging challenges:

Read my full review of the Optimum ThermoCook in this post: Kale & Squash Pearl Barley Risotto.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links – I am a Froothie Ambassador and will earn a small commission if you order an Optimum ThermoCook via these links. (Of course, I fully endorse the product and would not agree to promote it unless I genuinely loved it!).