Parmesan White Bean Soup With Hearty Greens Recipe (2024)

And if you don't happen to have 10 ounces cheese rind? Is there a way to make this with fresh Parmesan?

This soup is practically a staple in my home, derived from the Italian home in which I was raised. Usually a Saturday starter to our steak and fries special meal. I have been making it all of my 61 years of married life using escarole. Also traditionally served at the beginning of our Easter meals. Once in a while we include tiny meatballs, poached in the soup toward the end, but I prefer it sans meatballs.

I followed the recipe pretty closely and the proportions don’t resemble the picture. 4 cups of broth after reducing (I measured) to not even 1lb of kale (I used 12-14 oz before stem trimming) resulted in something closer to wilted kale in a bit of broth. I added 2c veggie broth and it was still mostly kale and beans.

Halve the water and pressure cook the first step for 30 minutes. Follow the rest of the steps as is.

After making the broth, please don't discard the cheese rinds! I always cut them up into bite size nutty, chewy nuggets and add to the soup or stew or sauce I am making, or save for another dish. Or just eat them as is. They are so, so good. You also can stick them on a fork and melt them a little in the gas flame.

Perhaps this is obvious to everyone but me, but after you brown the cut garlic in 2 Tbsp olive oil at medium high heat, let the pan cool down A LOT before adding the water. I didn't and got a veritable shower of olive oil all over my stove.

Folks! You can buy parm rind! And always save your leftovers (I freeze mine)Parm rind at any mid-high level grocer or cheese monger. Whole Paycheck has them for 5.99 which means a good 5 oz chunk is about 34 cents. :)

So I wanted a lot of broth....I basically doubled it with two heads of garlic, over a pound of parmesan rinds and 4 quarts of water. The broth simmered for 2 hours. I used a pound of greens (mustard, collard, and turnip). Three cans of great northern beans, one can of garbanzo and followed the rest of the recipe....took about 3 hours total and it is out of this world delicious.

I agree. You can't buy cheese rinds easily. They are usually leftovers from the cheese you do buy. The recipe should have included where rinds are available, and how to substitute if possible.

I would slice the collards very thin, like the Brazilians do and saute them a bit to soften them before adding to the soup, if you want to use Collards

The broth to kale to bean ratio is really off. Next time I’m going to double the amount of water and ingredients used for the broth and then it should be better. Delicious broth as is, so i don’t want to dilute it.

To me, this recipe screamed for chicken, so I added the leftovers of Alison Roman's Vinegar Chicken. Also added a third of a cup of half-and-half. XLNT

This broth is seriously one of the BEST broths I’ve ever tasted, let alone made. There’s infinite possibilities floating around my head. Looking forward to trying as many as possible.RF

The flavor from the Parmesan rinds was incredible, very rich for the relatively short cooking time. Unfortunately this recipe doesn’t make nearly enough broth for a real soup (as pictured)! I had to dump in half a quart plus of chicken broth at the end when I realized how little broth it had made. I would double the amount of broth next time, but otherwise we loved it. Will cook again.

Note: after the first hour of cooking my broth was rather bland, but by the 2nd hour it was delicious!

Agree with others that as is this is quite bland. I pumped up the garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, and black pepper, and added some sautéed pancetta at the final stage (after the greens and beans).

Delicious soup. I recommend taking the 'bite sized pieces' literally for the greens. Also, you may want to avoid any red/purple kale or other greens - the color of my broth was not as beautiful as it might have been.

This recipe seems overcomplicated to me, without flavor benefit. Follow the recipe loosely, placing the parm rinds in chicken stock with the aromatics, and simmer. Add the white beans, I use the pot liquor from the canned beans in the soup but I understand why the author asks you to drain and rinse the beans -- I just don't believe in it. Do what's right for you. Then the washed, trimmed, and chopped hard greens you're using -- the author's choices are fine. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper.

One of my all time favorite recipes! A lot of soups can feel kind of same-y but this one really stands out as something special. I keep cheese rinds and wheat berries on hand specifically for this recipe.

Too much work and not enough reward. A great tip that helped was adding some white miso to the broth to give it a little more umph.

Love this recipe! Thank you Ms Slagle. Streamlined version (for the harried) - Step 1: never mind straining and reserving, just do what you can to fish the detritus out of the stock pot with a slotted spoon. Throw whatever garlic you collected to fry in the soup pot and don't worry about chopping half the cooked lemon rind - you can squeeze lots of lemon juice in at the end. Carry on roughly at Step 3. Definitely needs seasoning - we love Better Than Bouillon chicken for pretty much everything.

ohhh it’s so good. second all the notes that say to be patient, by hour one the broth was flavorless, but hour two it was incredible.

Tasty soup! Very easy. I agree, 1lb of greens is a bit much, I ended up using about 8oz which was plenty. I also added a tablespoon of 'better than bouillon, vegetable' to give it a little more flavor since I didn't have as many parm rinds as I should have.

Excellent! The broth is amazing.

A lot of preparation time and oversight for an average soup. Even after making three additional cups broth and adding a third can of beans.

maybe too much lemon ?

I forgot to buy lemons at the store but I always keep lemon essential oil at the house from Whole foods. I know you can buy many fancier brands but I just got the Whole Foods brand. I added 25 drops ish and felt like it was a good substitute. I let individuals add their own red chili flakes as I brought this to a church get together where small children would be eating it. It was widely LOVED and I have three people ask me for the recipe. I actually diced up the parmesan rind and included it.

Making this nourishing and hearty soup requires some patience and some adjustments, but nothing unreasonable. Before making, I learned from the comments here and took them to heart. Simmer the broth with the parmesan rinds for at least 2 hours, add a couple of extra cups of water, and measure the greens by eye/hand when adding at the end. The chili flake, lemon zest (not rind), and juice really make it sing.

A couple tablespoons of white miso paste made this soup pop!

1 lb kale is 2x too much, I had to add chicken stock. Added chicken sausage, celery and carrots. The parm rind broth was a most delicious savory umami flavor I’ve ever tasted . Might need this trick for many broth-based soups. Fun messing with gooey garlic and lemon peel too. Powdered thyme worked just fine too.