Creamy Pumpkin Soup with White Beans and Kale
on Oct 03, 2025
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This easy pumpkin soup recipe makes the most of pantry ingredients with canned pumpkin puree. Every spoonful has cannellini beans, diced carrots and kale. The soup is creamy without any actual cream because I puree some of it after it finishes simmering. Ready in about 30 minutes, the soup is vegetarian, but you change one thing to make it vegan.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Roasting a whole pumpkin cut into chunks is great, but this soup takes advantage of the convenience of canned puree. There are different reasons for each approach. Too often fresh pumpkin puree is limited to baking when you can also use it in soups and sauces.
This healthy soup has a rich and creamy consistency without heavy cream. Both pumpkin puree and white beans are creamy to begin with, so pureeing a portion of the soup just enhances that. Each bite has wonderfully savory flavor making it the perfect fall soup.
A good pumpkin soup like this one is more than just pureed vegetables. I like having spoonfuls with diced carrots and beans to keep things interesting. Stirring in chopped kale adds even more nutrition.
Soup is probably the most freezer-friendly kind of dish, and this pumpkin soup is great for meal prep. Fall and winter are the best times of the year to have a hearty and wholesome main dish stashed in the freezer for lunch or dinner.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
- Pumpkin purée Easy to find every fall, make sure to buy a can of pumpkin puree with no ingredients other than pumpkin. Avoid pumpkin pie filling which is spiced and sweetened.
- Cannellini beans: These white beans are the most plump compared to navy beans and great northern beans. That’s why I choose them to get the soup really creamy.
- Onions are the starting point for this recipe where you start building all the flavors. White or yellow onions are fine.
- Carrots: Along with diced onions, I also sauté carrots to add a subtle amount of sweetness.
- Garlic: The soup calls for 3 minced garlic cloves, which may sound like a lot, but it balances out with the rest of the ingredients.
- Rosemary: I simmer a sprig of fresh rosemary in the broth, which gives it just the right amount of this classic autumn herb.
- Kale: You can use curly green kale or lacinato kale. The heat in the soup quickly softens the chopped leaves. I don’t add them until the soup is done simmering.
- Vegetable broth: Always go with low-sodium broth, so you can control the seasonings. If you don’t need the soup to be vegetarian, you can substitute with chicken broth.
- Olive oil: I use extra-virgin olive oil to sauté the vegetables for the best flavor.
- Kosher salt & black pepper season the soup. I add both with the minced garlic. Then I always taste the soup when I finish cooking it to see if it needs more. Adding salt isn’t about making food salty. Salt is the on-switch for the overall flavor of a dish.
- Parmesan cheese: Besides pumpkin puree and white beans, parmesan melts into the soup making it creamy and giving it umami flavor. Then I sprinkle each bowl with parmesan before I serve it. If you want the soup to be vegan, leave out the cheese and top each bowl with a little nutritional yeast.
- Lemon might not be an ingredient you think of in a pumpkin recipe, but it gives the soup something citrusy and bright.
- Parsley: I garnish the soup with chopped fresh parsley. You can also do chives.
How To Make This Creamy Pumpkin Soup Recipe
1. Heat the oil in large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat and sauté the chopped onions. Give them 5 minutes to turn soft and translucent.
2. Add the carrots and continue sautéing for a couple minutes.
3. Stir in the minced garlic, salt and pepper. After 30 seconds or so, the vegetables will become fragrant.
4. Add the canned pumpkin puree, white beans, vegetable broth and rosemary. Bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 12-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the soup is fragrant and has reduced slightly.
5. Carefully transfer a third of the soup to a blender and puree it. It should have a fully smooth texture. Make sure to remove the rosemary sprig before pureeing. Then pour the pureed soup back into the pot.
6. Stir in the kale, parmesan and lemon juice. The greens will wilt slightly. Divide the soup into bowls and top with additional parmesan and parsley.
Serving
As mentioned, this vegetarian soup can be a filling lunch or dinner. You can keep it simple and serve it with a piece of focaccia or crusty bread. If you want something more, make an Italian-style grilled cheese with mozzarella.
For a green salad, try a lemon arugula salad or a classic house salad. You can also think about adding this to Thanksgiving dinner for a soup course or if you want to give the vegetarians more options at the big meal.
Leftovers & Storage
Let the creamy soup cool to room temperature before transferring it to an airtight container. You can keep it in the fridge up to 4 days. Warm it in a pot on the stove over low to medium heat or in the microwave. To keep the soup longer, you can freeze it up to 1 month. It’s easier to thaw if you divide it into portion sizes before freezing.
Recipe Tips
- If you have a Parmesan rind, you can simmer it in the soup. I keep a bag of rinds in my fridge. A rind adds even more umami when you simmer one into Italian soups or homemade tomato sauce.
- Transfer the soup to a blender instead of pureeing it with an immersion blender in the pot. Because you want some of the beans and carrots to stay whole, you have to do this separately.
- Don’t forget to take out the rosemary sprig before you puree the soup. Or you will end up with way too much of its flavor.
- You can also garnish the soup with roasted pumpkin seeds. They will add a little crunch.
More Soup Recipes
Roasted Tomato Soup
Minestrone Soup
Lentil Wild Rice Soup
Roasted Cauliflower White Bean Soup
Hearty Vegetable Soup
Roasted Eggplant Stew
Harissa Chickpea Vegetable Soup
White Bean Sweet Potato Kale Soup
Vegetable Barley Tomato Soup
Creamy Pumpkin Soup with White Beans and Kale
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion, roughly chopped
- 2 medium carrots, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
- 2 15 ounce cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 1 cup chopped kale leaves
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan plus more for serving
- 1 lemon, juice
- Chopped parsley for serving
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Sauté the onions until they turn soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add the carrots. Continue cooking for 2-3 minutes.
- Then stir in the garlic, salt and pepper, sautéing for 30 seconds until fragrant.
- Add the pumpkin puree, beans, vegetable broth and rosemary. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 12-15 minutes until the soup has reduced slightly.
- Remove the rosemary sprig. Carefully transfer a third of the soup to a blender and puree.
- Pour the pureed soup back into the soup in the pot. Stir in the kale, parmesan and lemon juice. The greens will quickly soften.
- Divide the soup into bowls and garnish with grated parmesan and chopped parsley.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
