White Navy Bean And Kale Soup For Later Full GAPS

White navy bean and kale soup gives you soft, creamy beans, sweet carrot coins and tender greens in a savory homemade stock. A little lemon goes in at the end, and the cooked bacon is saved for the bowls. It is a brothy soup with plenty to scoop up, rather than a smooth purée.

This version is for later Full GAPS, once properly prepared beans are already tolerated. The beans, stock and home-cured bacon need to be ready before soup day. With those parts finished, the soup takes about seventy minutes, including chopping and the final simmer.

In our house, cooking happens before second-shift work, alongside homeschooling and the rest of the weekday. Having a pot of stock started in the morning was the routine that made GAPS doable for us. I do not always have every other preparation finished ahead, though, and that makes cooking harder. This is the kind of meal where a ready portion of beans and some finished bacon make a real difference. The long preparation belongs on another day; the soup is the part you put together afterward.

Ingredients

• ½ pound dried white navy or haricot beans, measured dry and fully prepared before making the soup
• 1 quart filtered water
• 1 quart homemade beef meat stock
• 1 teaspoon natural sea salt, plus any final adjustment to taste
• 1 slice salt-only home-cured bacon, ready for cooking
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, scrubbed and cut into ¼-inch coins
• ½ pound kale, weighed before removing tough ribs and chopping the leaves
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
• ½ small lemon, juice only

For the beans, complete the linked white navy bean preparation ahead of time, including its fermentation, fresh-water cooking and draining. Use all the cooked beans that came from the measured half pound of dry beans. If you prepare that recipe’s full one-pound batch, use half the drained batch here. Half a pound of cooked beans is not the same amount.

The finished beans should crush easily with a fork, with a creamy middle rather than a dry, chalky fleck. An overnight soak alone is not the complete preparation used in this soup. Canned cannellini or other white beans do not replace the dried white navy or haricot beans specified for GAPS.

The bacon is the finished, rinsed salt-only home cure, sliced and ready to cook. It is unsmoked and has no sugar, chemical curing agents or liquid smoke. Keep the amount small as written: one slice supplies the little cooked pieces for the bowls and the fat used to soften the vegetables.

Homemade chicken meat stock works here too. You can use the same quart of homemade chicken meat stock instead of beef. Have either stock prepared before starting, and keep the separate quart of water in the recipe.

How To Make White Navy Bean And Kale Soup

1. Have the fully prepared, cooked and drained beans ready. Chop the bacon into ½-inch pieces, chop the onion, scrub and slice the carrots into ¼-inch coins, and remove the tough kale ribs. Chop the kale leaves into pieces ½ inch or smaller.
2. Put the prepared beans, quart of water and quart of homemade meat stock into a roomy stockpot. Heat toward a gentle simmer while you cook the bacon and vegetables. The beans are already completely soft; this step warms the soup base rather than cooking dry beans.
3. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the chopped bacon for about 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cooked through and crisp at the edges. Lift the pieces onto a plate, saving them for serving. Leave the rendered fat in the skillet.
4. Add the chopped onion to the bacon fat. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the carrot coins and cook for another 5 minutes, until the onion is soft and translucent.
5. Add the cooked onion and carrots, with the skillet’s rendered fat, to the hot beans and stock. Stir in the teaspoon of salt. Keep the soup at a gentle simmer for about 15 minutes.
6. Stir in the chopped kale and simmer for another 10 minutes, until the leaves are tender and wilted. Check a carrot coin with a fork; it should be soft through the center.
7. Stir in the black pepper and taste a cooled spoonful before adjusting the seasoning. Just before serving, squeeze in the juice from the half small lemon. Stir, ladle into four bowls and divide the cooked bacon pieces over them.

The onion changes from sharp-smelling and firm to sweet-smelling, flexible and translucent. Give it the first ten minutes before adding the carrots. The carrots will begin softening in the skillet and finish in the soup; they do not need to be completely tender before they leave the pan.

Keep the simmer gentle enough that the soft beans are not constantly knocked around. Some may split and cloud the broth a little, which gives the liquid more body. Stir from the bottom with a spoon, taking care around the tender beans.

The kale starts bulky and bright green, then settles into the liquid as it wilts. Remove those tough ribs before chopping so the spoonfuls are leaves rather than chewy stem pieces. At the end, the leaves should be tender, the carrots soft and the bean centers creamy. Add the lemon at serving time for its fresh, bright flavor.

Where It Fits On GAPS

The 2020 Gut and Physiology Syndrome book names properly prepared white navy or haricot beans among the allowed legumes. It also says to wait until diarrhoea and other digestive symptoms have cleared completely before introducing beans. This is a later Full GAPS soup for a menu where those beans are already tolerated.

Starting with the right bean matters as much as finishing its preparation. The small white navy bean is not interchangeable with a larger white kidney bean simply because both are pale. The linked preparation keeps the soaking, fermentation, rinsing and cooking together in its own recipe.

This soup is made on the stovetop. The GAPS cooking guidance does not use a pressure cooker for the beans. A separately prepared meat stock can have its own stock-making method; that does not change how the beans are prepared for this meal.

A more plant-focused Full GAPS menu can use this bowl once legumes fit the person’s food introductions, while retaining the homemade animal stock and bacon. It is not a No-Plant recipe. It is also not automatically dairy-free: the linked bean preparation uses homemade whey or kefir, and the default beef-stock recipe includes ghee.

For an earlier Introduction Diet option, the cauliflower egg yolk soup has its own Stage 2 instructions and introduction conditions. Follow that separate recipe rather than removing the beans and kale here and assuming the remaining bowl has the same stage placement.

Serving And Storage

Divide the cooked bacon over the bowls at the table. There is only one slice in this four-serving recipe, so each bowl gets a small amount. The beans, carrots and kale supply most of the spoonfuls, with the homemade stock around them.

The seventy-minute estimate starts with prepared beans, stock and bacon. It does not include their earlier preparation. Chopping takes about twenty-five minutes; warming the base alongside the skillet work and completing the final simmer takes about forty-five minutes. Allow a little longer if the bacon or carrots need it.

For leftovers, divide the soup into shallow containers and cool promptly before refrigerating. Use within two days, keeping the cooked bacon topping separate when possible. Older prepared ingredients do not gain a fresh storage period just because they have been made into soup.

Freeze suitable portions for longer storage and thaw in the refrigerator. Reheat gently on the stovetop until hot throughout. The very soft beans may break down further after freezing and reheating, so stir with care. Keep the bacon pieces separate and warm them in a skillet if you want their edges crisp again when serving.

Recommended Equipment

Use a stainless-steel or enameled stockpot with room for both quarts of liquid, the prepared beans and vegetables, plus simmering headroom. A separate large skillet lets you cook the bacon, onion and carrots while the soup base warms.

I use Le Creuset cookware in Artichaut where it fits the job. A wooden spoon or suitable spatula helps move the vegetables and rendered fat from the skillet to the pot. You also need a scale for the dry bean starting weight and kale, a liquid measure, measuring spoons, a knife and chopping board, a slotted spoon and a ladle.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I Measure The Beans Dry Or Cooked?

Measure half a pound dry, complete the linked preparation, and use that whole cooked, drained portion. Alternatively, use half of its one-pound preparation batch. Do not substitute half a pound weighed after cooking.

Can I Use Frozen Prepared Beans?

Yes. The bean preparation includes freezing finished portions. Thaw the correct portion in the refrigerator and drain excess liquid before adding it to the soup’s measured water and stock.

Why Cook The Kale Last?

The onion and carrots need their earlier cooking time. The small kale pieces go into the final ten-minute simmer, so they become tender without spending the whole cooking interval in the pot.

More Soups With Prepared Navy Beans

The bacon and white navy bean soup is a different bowl, with lime, garlic and its own larger bacon amount. Keep that recipe’s quantities together when you want those flavors.

The upcoming Weekly Kitchen Rhythm Planner in the WFLI shop is for placing longer preparations like beans and home-cured bacon around the rest of the week. For this soup, start with those parts finished and ready to use.