Curried Red Bean Soup With Kale
Published May 30, 2025

- Total Time
- 40 minutes
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 35 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2tablespoons olive oil, plus more for serving
- 1tablespoon black mustard seeds (see Tip)
- 1large yellow onion, finely diced
- 4garlic cloves, finely grated
- Kosher salt, such as Diamond Crystal
- 1teaspoon ground cumin
- 1teaspoon ground coriander
- ½teaspoon ground turmeric
- ½teaspoon Kashmiri chile powder, plus more for serving (or ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper and ¼ teaspoon paprika)
- 1(28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, preferably San Marzano
- 4cups vegetable stock
- 1(14-ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed (see Tip)
- ½cup ditalini, or other short pasta
- 5ounces baby kale or baby spinach
- Grated Parmesan, for serving (optional)
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat a large pot over medium-high. Add oil and mustard seeds and cook until the mustard seeds begin to pop, 30 to 60 seconds.
- Step 2
Carefully add onion, garlic and 1 teaspoon salt (the oil may sizzle). Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent and softened, about 5 minutes. Add cumin, coriander, turmeric and chile powder and cook, stirring to coat the onion and garlic, until the spices are fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Step 3
Stir in the tomatoes (and any juices) and ½ teaspoon salt. Use a wooden spoon or masher to crush the tomatoes into small pieces, leaving a few larger pieces for texture if desired. Add stock and kidney beans, stir and bring to a boil.
- Step 4
Once boiling, add ditalini and reduce to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally to make sure ditalini doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot, until pasta is cooked through and soup has thickened slightly, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Step 5
Just before serving, stir in kale to wilt. Ladle soup into bowls and serve with a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of Parmesan if desired and a pinch of chile powder.
- Black mustard seeds add a subtle nutty flavor to dishes when sizzled and popped in oil or ghee. Find them at larger supermarkets, South Asian markets or online.
- Kidney beans can be replaced with white beans or chickpeas.
Private Notes
Comments
I made this for a light supper with friends last night. It was easy and delicious! Everyone enjoyed it. The only change I made was to cook everything except the pasta and greens in advance so that the flavors had a chance to meld. Then, before serving, I added 1/4 C of water and proceeded with the pasta and greens. Delicious! I served the soup with buttermilk cheddar biscuits. I will be making this again!
I love this recipe! I made it today for our family lunch, and it turned out really well. I use spinach instead of kale, and that is pretty much the only substitution I made. Now I'm trying to memorize the recipe so that I can make it again without referring to the excellent step-by-step instructions from Zaynab Issa. :)
I loved this. It was a little blander than I expected during the cooking, but was very tasty when finished. It was also very filling.
This is a nice minestrone soup. I love black mustard seeds, so this caught my eye. I basically doubled the seasonings, and it still really tasted mostly like regular minestrone soup, which seems to be what others are saying as well. I added a bunch of other vegetables that needed to be used up, which made it more interesting I think. I really liked what I tasted up to the point before adding the broth to turn it into soup, more than the final soup result, actually. I might do that again and use the Indian-spiced tomato sauce over grilled chicken and vegetables or something.
Made it per the instructions. While I enjoyed the finished product, I really didn’t taste any of the curry spices. There was a nice heat but the taste was overwhelmingly tomato.
A fine Italian soup. Could not taste any of the other spices, though.
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