Beans and Greens is an easy, high-fiber meal made with cannellini beans, kale, spinach, garlic, and lemon, simmered in a light broth. It’s healthy, cozy, and ready in about 20 minutes.
Lemony Greens and Beans
This Italian Beans and Greens recipe is one of those back-pocket dinners I make when I want something nutritious, quick, and satisfying—without turning on the oven. Creamy cannellini beans simmer in a garlicky broth with a little crushed red pepper. Then, I finish it with spinach, Tuscan kale, and a bright pop of lemon. It’s simple, budget-friendly, and packed with fiber and protein (especially when made with bone broth). Top it with a little Parmesan, if desired and serve it with crusty bread for an extra-special touch.
Why You’ll Love This Beans and Greens Recipe
I’m trying to eat more beans to increase my fiber intake, and this canned beans and greens recipe is perfect for helping me reach my goal. With over 10 grams protein per serving, it holds up well for meal prep! I think this would make a good side dish, or meatless main and absolutely great with garlic toast!
- Fast: Because we’re using canned beans, the dish cooks quickly.
- High-fiber + protein-packed: Filling and satisfying even without meat.
- Great for meatless Mondays as a main dish or as a side with sausage or chicken for more protein
- Meal-prep friendly + reheats well: Lasts for 4 days, and you can pop it in the microwave to reheat it.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Using canned beans–a pantry staple–makes this a quick and easy meal. Below are notes on the ingredients for this easy beans and greens recipe. See the recipe card below for the exact measurements.
- Olive Oil to sauté the shallots and garlic
- Aromatics: Chopped shallots and garlic
- Crushed Red Pepper for a little heat
- Canned Cannellini Beans: An affordable plant-based protein source. Drain and rinse them first.
- Broth: Use vegetarian broth to keep the dish vegetarian, or chicken bone broth for a protein boost.
- Lemon Zest and Juice for a bright burst of citrus
- Kosher Salt and Black Pepper for simple seasoning
- Greens: Roughly chop spinach and Tuscan kale (also called dinosaur or lacinato kale). Remove the kale stems by holding the leaf upside down by the stem and running your hand down to pull off the leaves.
- Parmesan Cheese adds creaminess and enhances the flavor, but feel free to skip it to keep it dairy-free.
How to Make Beans and Greens
Step 3 calls for an immersion blender, but a regular blender will work if that’s all you have. Just add the beans to a blender, remove the plastic cap, and cover the opening with a dish towel to let the steam escape. You can also skip this step if you’re in a hurry and don’t mind a thinner broth or mash some with a fork. See the recipe card at the bottom for printable directions.
- Sauté the shallots, garlic, and red pepper in olive oil in a pot over medium-high heat for 2 minutes.
- Simmer the beans: Add the cannellini beans, broth, zest, salt, and pepper, then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, partially cover the pot, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Puree the beans: Increase the heat to medium-low, then use an immersion blender to blend a third of the beans. This step will thicken the stew and make it creamier. Just be careful not to overdo it–you still want plenty of whole beans for texture.
- Add the greens: Stir in the kale and spinach until wilted. If the pot is too full, cook them in batches, adding more as the greens cook down.
- Finishing touches: Remove the pot from the heat, stir in the lemon juice, season with more salt and pepper if needed, and serve with Parmesan.
Serving Suggestions
Soak up the broth
I like to serve cannellini beans and greens with toasted sourdough or crusty bread to soak up the broth. It’s also delish over brown rice, farro, or quinoa.
Serve the beans with a protein
Variations + Swaps
- Make it spicy: Add more crushed red pepper. (Or make it milder by omitting it.)
- Swap the beans: Try Great Northern or navy beans
- Make it vegetarian: Use vegetable broth. To make it vegan, skip the Parmesan.
- Switch up the greens: Replace Tuscan kale or spinach with rainbow chard, collard greens, or mustard greens. Also, if you can’t find Tuscan kale, curly kale will also work.
- Boost the protein: Brown Italian chicken sausage with the shallots, or stir in smoked pork or rotisserie chicken with the greens.
- Add herbs such as rosemary, thyme, or basil.
Storage
- Refrigerate white beans and greens for up to 5 days.
- Freeze in airtight containers for up to 3 months.
- Reheat: Thaw the dish in the fridge, then microwave or heat on the stove until warm.
More Bean Recipes You’ll Love
For more side dish and dinner ideas, check out these five delicious bean recipes to inspire your next meal!
- Instant Pot Pinto Beans
- Quick Black Beans
- Tuscan White Bean Soup with Meatballs
- Brown Sugar Baked Beans
- Navy Bean Soup
- This Brothy Lima Beans and Greens is another healthy option.
Beans and Greens
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 2 15.5-ounce cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 ½ cups chicken bone broth or vegetable broth
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 packed cups spinach, roughly chopped
- 2 cups tuscan kale, stems removed and chopped
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Parmesan cheese, optional for topping
Instructions
- Heat a heavy bottom pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the olive oil, shallot, garlicand crushed red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to soften, about 2 minutes. Add the beans, bone broth, lemon zest, salt and pepper.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn the heat down to low. Partially cover the pot with a lid and let simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the beans are very soft.
- Turn the heat up to medium low and use an immersion blender to blend about ⅓ of the beans. Add the spinach and kale and stir to combine; you may need to do this in batches. Cook, while stirring, until the greens are wilted and well mixed with the beans.
- Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Top with Parmesan cheese, if desired.
The flavors are amazing. Easy to make. I had it as a side dish with flank steak.
So, so good! Even my husband, a certified kale hater, loved this. Really good with baked cod.
Sooo good and easy! I just used frozen kale and white onion because that’s what I had on hand so an easy “pantry” pull side or meal. I served with some egg whites and sourdough toast on the side too because my mind I was thinking egg cassoulet.
I love this recipe. It is simple, easy to make, and tasty. This meal has moved into my weekly meal planning. I’m make it right now.
Excellent restaurant quality recipe! I topped it with grilled snapper and left off the Parmesan cheese. It is worth every bit of the prep work!
Thanks Jill!
An easy tasty meal that is quick to cook and very filling. Will cook it again.
This was so good. The flavor was amazing and this will definitely be on repeat.
This recipe is so yummy! I used more broth than recommended and didn’t puree my beans. I simmered the beans for a bit longer than 20 minutes in the extra broth and it was thick enough for me. The flavor of this dish is outstanding. I served with toasted sourdough bread. Simply delicious!
SUCH A HIT! My non-vegetarian boyfriend was so impressed and asked that we add this to our weekly rotation. I did add more veggie broth to make it more saucy (and I maybe blended more beans than the recipe calls for) but followed the recipe otherwise and it was a 10/10!
Just made this for lunch and it is sooooo good I had to add this comment now even though we are in the middle of eating. Absolutely delicious!! Thank you for another winner 😀
So happy you liked it!
I literally have never reviewed a recipe, idk why. But this is simply stellar! I can’t stop eating it!
So glad!!
This dish is amazing!!! So easy and so tasty. I usually avoid recipes with Kale and I’m so glad I didn’t this time. This will be my new go to dish!
Easy and sooo good. I served this with homemade sourdough discard naan and it was a big hit. It makes a lot. Next time I may add some ground chicken sausage for variety.
Amazing flavors – the lemon and garlic are perfect together. Pureeing the beans makes it creamy without cream.
I made these last night. Added in a pound of ground chicken sausage and a pound of cooked pasta. Made a lot –
Delicious!!! Will definitely make again.
Yes!!!
Delicious! Love the flavors. I will be making this again!
I made this exactly as written and it is delicious! Next time I might make a double batch because it disappeared quickly.
Great!
It didn’t have a lot to reviews so I was nervous! It came out so DELICIOUS, we did this dish for our meatless night and it was fantastic! I love how she always pairs the beans, with lemon, shallot, garlic, and honestly it hold up the so well, topped with Parmesan!! I also added in off the heat 3 heaping tablespoons of plain Greek yogurt! Delicious! I will keep this forever, I have already made like 5 plus of her dishes, you can tell she taste and tried them. I order my groceries now with confidence now. The immersion make a difference, I would say if you don’t have an immersion, take some of this and blend it and put it back in. I did the immersion enough it started turning like bean creamy. It was a hit!
SO happy you enjoyed this!!!
So good, So easy!
Wow, wasn’t sure I was going to like this since the ingredients were so “simple”, but this was absolutely delicious. Filling and very flavorful, and the Tuscan kale added the right amount of texture and bite to the meal. A winner for sure!
Glad you enjoyed it!
10/10 this recipe was amazing, the flavors are spot on and the recipe is easy to make. I didn’t blend any of the beans, just mashed some with a fork. I could eat this every day!
This is so good! So easy to make and super delicious. Didn’t think I would like it because I’m not a big fan of lemon but WoW!
Loved this. I used a bunch of tuscan kale and rainbow swiss chard, chopping those stems and cooking along with the onion. So I used a lot of greens and got a good 4 cups at least worth, so we can have it a couple times. This will be a standard vegetarian meal. Am leaning more and more vegetarian so appreciate this recipe
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great!!!! Looks so good!
Just made this for lunch…only made 1/2 as my hubby not keen on beans…but he tried it – so will make more…it is soooo easy & sooooo yummy.