Greens & beans soup with sourdough croutons

Gloriously green, with beans for creaminess, protein and fibre. Served with cheesy, crunchy, sourdough bites.

This soup is gloriously green, packed with leeks, broccoli and spinach alongside white beans which add creaminess, protein and a load of fibre too. This is so healthy and wholesome, and tasty served with crunchy, cheesy sourdough croutons.

This can be batch cooked and used for lunches across the week too, although the croutons are best used within a day or two (and stored in an air tight container).

If you want to bulk it out, or make it a little thicker and even heartier, you can add an extra tin of beans. A mix of butter beans and cannellini beans is a good idea, and will mean it’s even more gut friendly (eating a diverse range of plants is the best thing you can do for gut health, and beans are gut superheroes). Alternatively, if you’re a chunky soup kind of person, add an extra tin of beans (drained) once blitzed.

You’ll need (serves 4)

• Oil for frying, I used Mellow Yellow cold pressed rapeseed oil

• 1 large leek, sliced

• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

• 1 head broccoli, cut into florets (use the stalk too)

• 150g spinach

• 1 tin cannellini beans (or butter beans)

• 1.2l vegetable stock

• 1 lemon

For the croutons:

• 200g sourdough bread, torn into chunks

• Cold pressed rapeseed oil, or extra virgin olive oil

• 30g cheddar, grated

• Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 190C (or you can cook the croutons in an air fryer - no need to preheat if so).

Add a couple of tablespoons of oil to a large, deep pan. Add the leeks and cook gently for 5-10 minutes, stirring regularly. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute or two.

Add the broccoli, spinach, beans (and their liquid) and stock. Bring to a simmer and leave to cook for about 10 minutes.

Add the chunks of bread to a roasting tin and drizzle over a couple of tablespoons of oil. Add the cheese and salt and pepper and mix well with your hands. Transfer to the oven and cook for 5 minutes. Toss and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, blend the soup using a stick blender until completely smooth. Squeeze in the lemon juice. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.

Serve the soup topped with the croutons. Dig in.