Tuscan Bean Stew with Whole Wheat Pasta
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read my disclosure.This Tuscan Bean Stew is hearty, spicy, healthy and satisfying. Full of veggies, beans, and whole wheat pasta it’s a high protein, high fiber, delicious meal that’s done in 30 minutes.
This is one of our family’s favorite soups. The veggies are crunchy, the beans and parmesan are creamy. It’s an all-around feel good food.
I made this soup for the first time years ago, when I first started cooking. My husband, who at that time was skeptical about the abundance of veggies, actually said “I wish my stomach was bigger so I could eat more of this soup!”
It was a nice endorsement from someone who used to live on Taco Bell and Frozen Pizzas, to say the least 🙂 Fast forward a few years later, and my husband still loves this soup – and now my kids love it too!
This recipe is great because it’s super easy to make, takes only 30 minutes, and it’s a great vehicle for “sneaking” extra veggies into your diet. The tomato and white bean base work well with just about any vegetables you might want to add into the soup. I chose carrots, bell peppers, kale, and red onions – but you can really use anything you’d like.
Tools and Equipment You’ll Need For This Recipe
How to Make Tuscan Bean Stew – Step by Step
Step 1: Warm the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat and chop your veggies. Meanwhile, boil water for your pasta in a separate pot. Add the carrots, peppers, onion, and garlic and sauté until soft, about 5-10 minutes.
Step 2: Add in the kale, cook 2-3 minutes.
Step 3: Add the crushed tomatoes, broth, beans, and spices (red pepper flakes, salt, pepper). In the separate pot of boiling water, cook your pasta.
Step 4: Once the pasta is done, drain it and set aside. If you use penne pasta for this recipe, I recommend cutting each penne pasta in half when it’s done cooking – to make them smaller and match the size of the other ingredients in the soup
Step 5: Simmer the stew for 20 minutes on medium-low heat.
Step 6: When the stew is close to done, stir in the pasta.
Step 7: Cook everything together for another 5-10 minutes on low heat (be careful not to overcook the pasta though!)
Step 8: Ladle into bowls, and top each bowl with 1 tbsp of freshly grated parmesan cheese.
What makes this Tuscan Bean Stew healthy?
- Full of Veggies: This stew is chock full of veggies with leafy greens, peppers, carrots, and onions. Not only will you get several servings of veggies eating this soup, but you’ll also get tons of vitamins and nutrients including vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin B6, calcium, potassium and manganese.
- Superfood Kale: Kale is a superfood and a leafy green. It’s recommended to consume leafy greens everyday yet most Americans don’t include these powerful veggies in their diet enough. Adding them to soups is an easy way to enjoy your greens. This soup uses baby kale which is not as coarse as the curly leaf kale you often see being used. Kale provides dietary fiber, protein, thiamine, riboflavin, folate, iron, magnesium and phosphorus.
- High in Plant-Protein: The beans in this stew give it a hearty dose of plant-protein, coupled with the whole wheat pasta, and you’ve got a complete protein source. One serving of stew has 15 grams of protein.
- High in Fiber: All of the added veggies along with the beans and whole wheat pasta make this soup an excellent source of fiber. One serving has 15 grams of your daily recommended 25 grams of fiber.
Will kids enjoy this Tuscan Bean Stew?
My kids are crazy for this soup! The beans, pasta and veggies are chopped into perfect bite sized pieces. With Tuscan Italian seasonings, and not too spicy, it’s the perfect way to sneak extra veggies into their diet.
Can you freeze this Tuscan Bean Stew?
Yes, you can freeze this soup. I recommend preparing the soup according to the recipe directions and leaving the pasta out. When ready to defrost and serve, prepare the whole wheat pasta according to the directions and add to the soup once heated through and ready to serve. This will prevent mushy or mealy pasta after it’s defrosted.
This soup will last for 2-3 months in an air tight freezer container.
What do you serve with Tuscan Bean Stew?
- Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese
- Whole Wheat Garlic Bread
- Green Salad
- Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Top Tips for Making Tuscan Bean Stew
- Use baby kale. This will help you save time de-stemming regular kale.
- Cut whole wheat penne pasta shells in half to create bite sized pieces that are the same size as the other ingredients in the soup.
- Don’t add the cooked pasta until just before you’re ready to serve. Adding it too soon will result in overcooked mushy pasta.
- Drain and rinse beans before adding them to the soup.
- Use low-sodium vegetable broth and no salt added beans to reduce overall sodium.
- If you don’t have baby kale, you can also use baby spinach
- To make this soup vegan, just omit the cheese!
CHECK-OUT THESE OTHER Healthy Soup and Stew RECIPES!
- Indian Stew with Rice and Lentils
- Mexican Black Bean Soup
- Stewed Beans
- White Bean and Kale Soup
- Curried Sweet Potato Soup
If you have tried this Tuscan Bean Stew recipe, or any other recipe on my blog, then please rate it and let me know how it turned out in the comments below! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see more delicious, healthy, family friendly food!
Tuscan Bean Stew with Whole Wheat Pasta
This Tuscan Bean Stew is hearty, spicy, healthy and satisfying. Full of veggies, beans, and whole wheat pasta it's a high protein, high fiber, delicious meal that's done in 30 minutes.
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 288kcal
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 3 carrots peeled and chopped
- 1 red onion chopped
- 2 bell peppers any color, chopped
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 1 box baby kale chopped
- 28 oz can crushed tomatoes with Italian spices
- 1-2 cups low sodium vegetable broth more if needed
- 15 oz cannellini beans drained and rinsed (1 can)
- 15 oz navy beans drained and rinsed (1can)
- 1/2 cup dry small whole wheat pasta I used penne and then cut the penne into smaller bits when it was cooked
- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Instructions
- Warm the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat and chop your veggies. Meanwhile, boil water for your pasta in a separate pot.
- Add the carrots, peppers, onion, and garlic and saute until soft, about 5-10 minutes. Add in the kale, cook 2-3 minutes.
- Add the crushed tomatoes, broth, beans, and spices (red pepper flakes, salt, pepper). In the separate pot of boiling water, cook your pasta.
- Once the pasta is done, drain it and set aside. If you use penne pasta for this recipe, I recommend cutting each penne pasta in half when it's done cooking – to make them smaller and match the size of the other ingredients in the soup
- Simmer the stew for 20 minutes on medium-low heat. When the stew is close to done, stir in the pasta.
- Cook everything together for another 5-10 minutes on low heat (be careful not to overcook the pasta though!)
- Ladle into bowls, and top each bowl with 1 tbsp of freshly grated parmesan cheese.
Notes
Top Tips for Making Tuscan Bean Stew
- Use baby kale. This will help you save time de-stemming regular kale.
- Cut whole wheat penne pasta shells in half to create bite sized pieces that are the same size as the other ingredients in the soup.
- Don’t add the cooked pasta until just before you’re ready to serve. Adding it too soon will result in overcooked mushy pasta.
- Drain and rinse beans before adding them to the soup.
- Use low-sodium vegetable broth and no salt added beans to reduce overall sodium.
- If you don’t have baby kale, you can also use baby spinach
- To make this soup vegan, just omit the cheese!
Nutrition
Calories: 288kcal | Carbohydrates: 49.5g | Protein: 15.1g | Fat: 5.7g | Saturated Fat: 1.4g | Sodium: 600mg | Fiber: 15.1g | Sugar: 4.2g
Yum! I love a good hearty Italian soup like this! Definitely making it soon — I like the use of kale and whole wheat pasta.
Yes!! This is super hearty and perfect for these colder months!
Delicious meal to try! Great recipe with amazing flavors.
Thanks so much!! So glad you liked it!
What a vibrant stew packed full of goodness! I wasn’t sure how much kale was in a box, so I used around 100 grams and it worked out fab. Thanks for the recipe!
Oh perfect! Yes I used one of those 5-6oz clamshells from the grocery store for this recipe!
Now this is the stew to make this season – it looks incredibly inviting and sooo warming! Love the looks and I am sure I will love the taste of it even more!
Totally!! You will love this recipe Danielle – I can’t wait for you to try it!
What a beautiful and delicious recipe! This was incredibly easy to make and my whole family devoured it. So healthy, will definitely make again!
Aw yay! I’m so happy all of you loved this recipe Angela!
Looks delicious! I will try it!
Thanks Roxana! I’m sure you’ll love this recipe!
Wow, this looks so great! Last Sunday I threw a birthday party for my friends. I made this soup as a birthday recipe, and all of my friends were praising me for this recipe! Thank you so much for sharing.
Aw thank you so much Anders! I’m so happy you and your friends enjoyed this recipe, and happy birthday!
Looking forward to trying this! Is it suitable for freezing?
Hi Jennifer! Yes absolutely – this soup freezes great! I usually make a big batch of it and freeze half for a future meal 🙂
Tried this tonight–it was absolutely delicious!! Will definitely be making it again!
Woohoo!! So happy to hear that Colleen! 🙂
Really love the recipes on your blog! I like how they are healthy but also tasty and filling; nice winter alternatives to salad!
Awww thank you so much Georgia! I’m so glad you’ve been enjoying the recipes on my blog. I love how you framed soup as an alternative to salad in the winter! It totally is! 🙂
Yum, definitely adding this recipe to the menu as the weather gets chilly!
Yay! I know you will love this recipe Pamela!
Never tried that kind of soup (it’s like a mix of 2 traditional Spanish meals), but we’ll definitely try it!
Looks very appropriate for winter! 😀
Oh interesting! I had no idea it had Spanish influences – that’s cool 🙂 Hope you like this when you try it!
Hey! Thanks for the recipe. This is my third time making it. And in our house, my dad bought zucchini which i knew he wasn’t going to use. SO…. i decided to use one whole zucchini and now my soup tastes like thai food. Do you think the zucchini caused that or was it something else because i think it mightve been zucchini
Hey! Hmm I don’t think that adding zucchini into this recipe would make it taste like Thai food – but it depends on how you define Thai food 🙂 If that was the only change you made then try it without the zucchini next time!
I plan to make this tonight 🙂 One question though: do you pre-cook the pasta beforehand or not? Thanks! Love your site!
Yay! Thanks Casey! To your question – you can totally pre-cook the pasta to save time. But then – when you add it to the soup – make sure you don’t simmer it as long as I do in the recipe, because otherwise your pasta will be overcooked. Hope that helps – let me know how you like it! 🙂
Thank you! I ended up cooking the noodles about 3/4 of the way and then added them to the soup. They were whole wheat like yours, so the longer cooking time made them softer and yummier. Loved it!! Didn’t have fresh Parmesan on me, so I used a little bit of goat cheese (and later, on another bowl, shredded cheddar/jack mix)… delightful! I also added another can of Great Northern beans since I had them on hand, and because I am a vegetarian too and need the protein. The only thing I did wrong was not add enough spice… I put in 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes plus a little bit more, but didn’t taste any spice at all! :\ I do like spicy, so maybe I’m biased. Next time I will add more, or maybe use cayenne pepper instead of red pepper flakes, which tends to do the trick for me (though I am an amateur).
Brought the soup to work today for lunch and it reheated perfectly! Will do so again for another 2 days probably. Thank you so much for all your wonderful recipes! I have tried several and always look forward to them! Plus my roommates love them now too 🙂
Yay! I’m so glad it turned out well – and to your point about the spice – since you added double the amount of beans you definitely need more spice 🙂 Since beans are so starchy, they absorb all the flavor and the additional spice will help balance it out. I’m so happy you got to enjoy the leftovers too!! Hope you are having a great weekend!
We made this for dinner tonight. We replaced some of the marinara with fresh tomatoes, added a jalapeno, and only used one can of broth (because my boyfriend likes his soups thick). It was really good! We will definitely be making it again.
Love the modifications you made Hilari! Especially adding the jalapeno – yum!! 🙂 So glad you liked it!
I’m going to try this soup this weekend. I’m sure my hubby would love it. Thanks for sharing this.
Yay!! I can’t wait to hear how both of you like it! 🙂 Enjoy!
Good, easy recipe and the soup looks great.
Thanks Linda! Let me know if you end up trying it!
Oh, I love good hearty vegetable soup in the winter. This is so colorful and pretty too. Yum!
It definitely is hearty – totally warms you up from the inside out. Can’t wait to hear how you like it!
That soup looks so good I can smell it. And now I’m starvin!!!
Haha yay! That is the idea. Get cooking! 🙂
It’s hard to think of hot soup when the air feels like hot soup, but your post made me reconsider.
That’s a good point Carol! The husband and I always end up making soup in the summer – we just let it cool off a bit before we eat it so it’s not *too* hot 🙂 Enjoy!