Recipes › Soups & cozy meals› White bean and kale stew with crispy garlic oil
Soups & cozy meals · Easy · Serves 6

White bean and kale stew with crispy garlic oil

A weeknight stew of white beans and kale finished with a slow drizzle of crispy garlic oil. Brothy, savory, healthy-ish, and the kind of dinner that just needs a piece of crusty bread.

Anna Lind Harper
by Anna Lind Harper
Tested twice · Published 2026-06-06
A wide cream-speckled stoneware bowl of brothy white bean and kale stew with tender cannellini beans, wilted lacinato kale, soft diced carrots, and a generous swirl of golden crispy garlic oil with little crispy garlic chips on top. A grated dusting of parmesan, a crack of black pepper, and a flake of flaky salt finish the bowl. A torn piece of crusty sourdough sits on a small wooden cutting board beside the bowl, with a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel and a small jar of more crispy garlic oil on a white marble counter.
Prep
10 min
Cook
25 min
Serves
6
Difficulty
easy

This is the stew I make when I want a bowl of something warm and savory but don't want to think too hard about it. White beans, kale, a few aromatics, broth, and a short simmer that pulls everything together. The crispy garlic oil at the end is the small flourish that turns a plain bowl into a real dinner.

It's pantry-friendly almost end to end. The beans come from a can, the kale comes from the bottom drawer of the fridge, and the rest is the kind of thing I have on a Tuesday. I make a double batch most Sundays and we eat it three nights running.

“Brothy, savory, healthy-ish, and the kind of dinner that just needs a piece of crusty bread.”
Why this one earns a weeknight

What you'll love about it

  • 01A whole pot of stew that comes together with one chopping board and one Dutch oven.
  • 02Pantry-friendly almost end to end. Canned beans, broth, a bunch of kale, a few aromatics.
  • 03The crispy garlic oil at the end is the small flourish that turns a plain bowl into a real dinner.
  • 04Healthy-ish and vegetarian-friendly. Skip the parmesan for fully vegan, swap the kale for chard or escarole, use whatever beans you have.
A hand in an oatmeal cardigan over a fitted white tee tilting a small stainless steel saucepan to pour golden-amber crispy garlic oil with visible golden garlic chips into a wide cream-speckled stoneware bowl of finished white bean and kale stew below. Crispy garlic chips have just scattered across the surface of the stew and a few have landed on the white marble counter. A folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel sits to the left and a small wooden cutting board with a torn piece of crusty sourdough sits at the lower-right.
Pour the crispy garlic oil generously. The chips and infused oil together are the whole point.
Ingredients

For the crispy garlic oil

  • ¼ cupolive oil
  • 6garlic cloves, thinly sliced, even thickness
  • a tiny pinchkosher salt

For the stew

  • 2 Tbspolive oil
  • 1medium yellow onion, diced
  • 2medium carrots, diced
  • 2celery ribs, diced, optional
  • ½ tspred pepper flakes
  • 1 tspkosher salt, plus more to taste
  • 2 (15 oz)cans cannellini or great northern beans, drained and rinsed
  • 5 cupslow-sodium vegetable or chicken broth
  • 1(2-inch) parmesan rind
  • 1bay leaf
  • 1small bunch lacinato (dinosaur) kale, stems removed, leaves chopped
  • 2 Tbspfresh lemon juice

To serve

  • freshly grated parmesan
  • black pepper and flaky salt
  • crusty sourdough or country bread
Method

How I make it

  1. 01
    Make the crispy garlic oil.
    In a small saucepan, combine the ¼ cup olive oil and the sliced garlic. Set over medium-low heat. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is golden and lightly crisped, 5 to 7 minutes. Watch it. Garlic goes from golden to burnt in a minute. Strain the crispy garlic onto a paper towel and sprinkle with a tiny pinch of salt. Reserve the infused oil.
  2. 02
    Build the stew base.
    In a Dutch oven over medium heat, warm the 2 Tbsp olive oil. Add the onion, carrots, and celery with a pinch of salt. Cook 6 to 7 minutes, until soft and fragrant. Stir in the red pepper flakes and 1 tsp salt and cook 30 seconds more, until you can smell them.
  3. 03
    Add the beans and broth.
    Pour in the broth. Add the beans, the parmesan rind if using, and the bay leaf. Bring to a low boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Cook for 15 minutes, partly covered. The flavors will meld and the broth will get savory.
  4. 04
    Wilt in the kale.
    Add the chopped kale by the handful, stirring it down into the broth as it wilts. Cook 3 to 5 more minutes, until the kale is tender but still bright green.
  5. 05
    Finish and serve.
    Stir in the lemon juice. Taste; adjust salt. Fish out the bay leaf and parmesan rind. Ladle into bowls. Drizzle each bowl generously with the reserved crispy garlic oil and scatter the crispy garlic chips on top. Finish with grated parmesan, a crack of black pepper, and a pinch of flaky salt. Serve with a torn piece of crusty bread.
    A pair of hands in an oatmeal cardigan over a fitted white tee dipping a torn piece of crusty sourdough bread into a cream-speckled stoneware bowl of white bean and kale stew, with the broth visibly wicking into the bread crumb at the dipped edge. The stew shows tender beans, wilted kale, diced carrots, crispy garlic chips and a dusting of parmesan on top. A small light oak wooden cutting board with the rest of the sourdough loaf sits at the right edge, with a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel at the lower-right edge, on a white marble counter.
    Dip, sop, repeat. The bread does the last of the work.
Macro close-up of the surface of a bowl of white bean and kale stew, showing plump tender cannellini beans, dark green bumpy-textured lacinato kale leaves, soft diced orange carrots, deep golden-amber savory broth, and a generous scatter of golden crispy garlic chips on top, with a dusting of grated parmesan and visible cracked black pepper and a tiny flake of flaky salt.
A note from Anna

Make extra crispy garlic oil. It keeps for a week in a small jar in the fridge and turns out to be the small thing that makes everything better: drizzled over a roasted potato, on toast with ricotta, over a fried egg, stirred into a vinaigrette. Slice the garlic thin and even, and keep the heat medium-low so the cloves crisp slowly. They go from golden to burnt in about a minute, so don't walk away.

What to serve with it

Round out the table.

  • ·01
    A piece of crusty sourdough
    For sopping up the broth. Toasted with olive oil and salt is even better.
  • ·02
    A small green salad
    Arugula, olive oil, lemon, parmesan. Mirrors the bowl, in five minutes.
  • ·03
    A glass of crisp white
    Or sparkling water with cucumber if it's a weeknight.
Storage & reheating

Keeping the leftovers good.

Fridge: Keeps for 4 days in a sealed container. The stew thickens as it sits. Loosen with a splash of broth or water when reheating. Store the crispy garlic oil separately so the garlic stays crisp.

Reheat: Gently on the stove over medium-low heat, stirring every minute or two. Add a splash of broth or water if it's too thick. Drizzle with the crispy garlic oil right before serving.

Make ahead: Cook the stew through step 3, refrigerate. Add fresh kale, lemon, and crispy garlic oil just before serving.

Freezer: Freezes well without the kale. Add fresh kale on reheat and finish with the crispy garlic oil and lemon. Keeps 2 months in the freezer.

Recipe card

White bean and kale stew with crispy garlic oil

A weeknight stew of white beans and kale finished with a slow drizzle of crispy garlic oil. Brothy, savory, healthy-ish, and the kind of dinner that just needs a piece of crusty bread.

Prep
10 min
Cook
25 min
Serves
6
Total
35 min
Ingredients
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced, even thickness
  • a tiny pinch kosher salt
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 medium yellow onion, diced
  • 2 medium carrots, diced
  • 2 celery ribs, diced, optional
  • ½ tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
  • 2 (15 oz) cans cannellini or great northern beans, drained and rinsed
  • 5 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth
  • 1 (2-inch) parmesan rind
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 small bunch lacinato (dinosaur) kale, stems removed, leaves chopped
  • 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • freshly grated parmesan
  • black pepper and flaky salt
  • crusty sourdough or country bread
Method (short version)
  1. 01Make the crispy garlic oil.
  2. 02Build the stew base.
  3. 03Add the beans and broth.
  4. 04Wilt in the kale.
  5. 05Finish and serve.

Nutrition information is an estimate. See full nutrition disclaimer.

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