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.
I really enjoyed this soup. Fun to make and the seasoning was very interesting to taste. I froze leftovers until I was ready to use as a quick lunch, and they turned out as good as fresh from the stovetop. Will definitely make again.
A tasty curried bean soup dish that will be even tastier if made in advance, except for adding pasta and greens, and reheated. We love beans at our house but not kidneys so subbed in navy beans that I had on hand cooked from dry and small elbow macaroni because it was in pantry and ditalini was not. Used homemade veg stock makes a good difference. A squeeze of lime juice in the bowls at service. May increase spices a tad if making again.
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.