As much as I love making gourmet recipes and challenging my culinary skills, I also love simple meals like this Creamy White Beans with Kale and Wild Rice. When I’m not eating leftovers from recipe testing (which, to be honest, is very often), I gravitate towards fuss-free meals like this.
Plus, this meal is healthy, vegan, gluten-free, and has no added oils, but it’s still creamy and flavorful. Best of both worlds!
Oh, and if you are into beans more generally, be sure to check out my round-up of 40 fantastic bean recipes from around the internet.
Why this recipe will become your new go-to weeknight dinner
Easy. This recipe is so easy to make that even the most beginner cook can make it! Plus, you likely already have most of these ingredients in your pantry!
Quick to make. Including prep time, the beans and kale take about 30 minutes total. And during that time, you can have the wild rice cooking. You can easily cook the wild rice in your Instant Pot or on the stove before starting on the beans and kale.
Wholesome. This recipe is packed with plant protein and fiber, and is vegan, gluten-free, and has no added oils. It’s the kind of nourishing meal you can eat every day of the week!
Creamy. Despite being wholesome, these beans get so creamy and dreamy, so it feels like a comforting hug in a bowl.
Ingredient Rundown
Cannellini Beans. They are one of the creamiest beans that are widely available in canned form. I absolutely adore them. If you cannot find them, you can substitute another white bean, but the end result won’t be as creamy.
If you also love cannellini beans, my Creamy White Bean and Kale Soup with Gremolata is a must-make!
Aromatics. I opt for my go-to onion + garlic combination, and the softened onions pair nicely with the creamy sauce. I also add fresh thyme, which brings a subtle woodsy yet floral, sweet yet peppery taste.
Lite coconut milk. The lite coconut milk enhances the natural creaminess of the cannellini beans and turns this into a delightfully saucy dish.
Miso paste. A little white miso paste goes a long way towards boosting the savory flavors in this dish. Typically, I rely on building a lot of flavor in savory dishes through sautéing aromatics in oil, but since this recipe is oil-free, I wanted to amp up the flavors in another way.
Tomato sauce and tomato paste. The tomato sauce helps thicken the sauce up a bit, while the tomato paste brings a concentrated tomato flavor. Both ingredients also help tame the coconut flavor of the coconut milk, so that this recipe doesn’t taste like coconut (I promise!).
Lacinato / Tuscan Kale. To bring in some extra nutrition, I throw in a generous amount of shredded kale. If you find it hard to incorporate leafy greens into your diet, this creamy dish is a great way to “sneak” them in.
Wild Rice. I serve the creamy white beans and kale over wild rice, and wild rice’s earthiness is a nice complement to the creaminess of the beans. Plus, the heft of the wild rice gives this plant-based dish a substantial feel, making it feel like a hearty main course.
How to make Creamy White Beans and Kale
If you follow my recipes, you know that I am definitely not oil-free, as I think oil is often necessary to achieve the right texture and to bring out certain qualities in food. For instance, it’s crucial in browning vegetables, as well as creating light and fluffy cakes.
That said, I am totally open to experimenting with oil-free cooking where possible. And I made a special effort to keep this recipe oil-free because I get a fair amount of requests for oil-free recipes.
Typically, I would sauté the aromatics (in this case, onion, garlic, and thyme) in a bit of olive oil, but here the use of a nonstick pan + salt + water to make oil unnecessary.
First, dice the onion and mince the garlic and fresh thyme leaves.
Then heat a deep nonstick pan over medium heat. Once the pan has heated up, add the diced onion (no oil) and cook for just a minute. Add a bit of salt to help release the natural moisture (and flavor) from the onions. Then, to prevent onions from burning, add in the water. That way, the onions get cooked in a hybrid sauté/steam method.
Typically, I do love to get some browning on the onions to maximize flavor, but there is plenty of flavor in the rest of this dish that I felt comfortable with this method. Of course, if you prefer to cook with oil (or don’t have a nonstick pan and are worrying about it burning), I’ve included a modification in the recipe.
Tips for Making this Recipe
To keep things efficient, start cooking the wild rice before you cook everything else. There are stovetop and Instant Pot instructions for wild rice in the recipe below.
While cooking wild rice doesn’t require much work, it does have a relatively long cook time compared to most grains. It’ll take about 45 minutes depending on your cooking method. So if you want to keep dinner under 30 minutes, you have a few options
- (a) use another grain with a shorter cook time (e.g., farro or quinoa)
- (b) slop these creamy beans on top of a hearty whole grain baguette or a baked sweet potato!
Substitutes for this Recipe
Wild Rice. As mentioned above, you can serve the creamy white beans over any grain you like, but I really liked it over wild rice. If you want to use wild rice but it’s a bit too earthy for your taste, try a blend of wild rice and brown rice.
Coconut Milk. If allergic to coconut, you can try another creamy plant-based milk, such as cashew milk or oat milk. Just be sure to use the unsweetened + plain variety.
Miso paste. If you don’t have miso paste, you can add a tablespoon of nutritional yeast and/or a teaspoon of tamari with a tablespoon of tahini.
That’s all I have to say about this easy yet flavorful recipe for Creamy White Beans with Kale and Wild Rice, so I hope you’ll enjoy it! If you make it, be sure to leave me a comment below with your feedback and tag me with your recreations on Instagram!
Creamy White Beans with Kale and Wild Rice
Ingredients
- 1 cup (~180g) wild rice (I used a wild rice + brown rice blend)
- 1 1/2 cups (360 mL) vegetable broth or water for Instant Pot method (use 3 cups (710 mL) vegetable for stovetop method)
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1/3 cup (80 mL) water*
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, minced
- 1 (13.5-ounce/400 mL) can “lite” or reduced-fat coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon white or yellow miso paste
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) tomato sauce
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 (15-ounce/440g) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon hot or sweet paprika (not smoked)
- 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes (add more to taste if you want it spicy)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt + more to season
- Black pepper to taste
- 6-8 cups (400-540g) shredded Tuscan (lacinato) kale, tough stems removed
Instructions
- Make the Wild Rice (Instant Pot method):Add the wild rice and 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth to the inner pot of the Instant Pot. Secure the lid and select the Pressure Cook/Manual setting for 25 minutes. Allow a natural pressure release and drain off any remaining liquid.
- Make the Wild Rice (Stovetop method): Place the wild rice and 3 cups of vegetable broth in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and cover. Simmer for 40-45 minutes, or until the kernels have burst open. Drain off any remaining liquid.
- While the rice is cooking, make the Creamy White Beans and Kale. Heat a deep nonstick pan over medium heat. Add the diced onion and a pinch of salt and stir together for 1 minute. Then add the water and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the onion softened and the water is mostly evaporated.
- Add the garlic and thyme leaves to the pan. Stir frequently for 2-3 minutes to prevent the garlic from burning.
- Stir in the coconut milk, miso, tomato sauce, tomato paste, cannellini beans, cumin, paprika, pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine and coat all the beans in the sauce. Then add the kale and stir again to incorporate.
- Bring the bean mixture to a simmer. Continue to cook at a simmer for 10 minutes until it has thickened and is creamy.
- Serve the beans and kale on top of the cooked wild rice.
Notes
This is absolutely delicious. And quick and easy. And healthy! How can you beat that?! Thanks for another great recipe!
Your positive feedback is the best reward for our hard work. Thank you, Rose!
So when I saw this come up on the vegan challenge, I was like as i’m ever going to eat that. It looked way too healthy. So on Friday, I thought I would give this a go and it was sooo good. Creamy with a spicy kick. Really liked the wild rice. As wild rice cost the earth, I mixed it with some brown rice so i’d have more of it which worked well (I liked the mix). However, I’m not really a fan off cannellini beans so I used butter beans and I really liked the texture and chunkiness of the butter beans with this. Also, what is left, I am utilising this week for lunches so going to have it on flat bread and also try it on a sweet potato as suggested which i’m excited to try. What I will say is that the more recipes of yours that I try, the more I eat things that I usually would not and find that I really enjoy them!
We’re so happy you loved the recipe, W! It’s so great to hear you’ve been expanding your palette thanks to the RPL recipes!
Is this nutrition info
Per serving or for all four servings?
Hi ER, the nutrition info is per serving!
This is one of my favorite recipes of all time. I’ve been experimenting with adding more vegetarian and vegan recipes into my diet and this website is a gold mine. Considering I cook often and I’m often looking for more variety I was so surprised by how much I absolutely loved this recipe! It’s so creamy and umami and satisfying to my suspicious meat eating husband. I can’t recommend it enough!!!
Hey Rachel! Wow, I can feel your enthusiasm about this recipe through the screen! Love it! Thanks for trying out the dish :)
OMG RPL recipes never fail. This recipe is delicious! I added a little more red pepper flakes because I love spicy food. I was hesitant to make this because of the coconut milk but I could not taste it. Recommend! I can’t wait to try it on top of a baked sweet potato 😋
We’re over the moon to hear you enjoyed the recipe, Yosseline. Thanks for giving it a shot and for your kind words!
Can’t wait to eat this, made it for this week. What is the serving size like is it 1 cup, etc.
Hi Regan, we are excited for you to eat it as well! We haven’t measured the serving volume ourselves but this recipe makes 4 servings.
Love all your recipes. Please continue to do everything you do with your platform. You are promoting healthy recipes and how they improve our daily lives. Promoting healthy and nutritious food is not only medicine for the soul, but medicine for our bodies. Thank you, and never stop providing us with such a great service. You are a blessing to many us trying to make our lives better. You motivate me!
Aw, thank you for the kind words, Pat! We have passed this message to Nisha. We are thankful for you!
Made this last night and absolutely loved it! You nailed it — again — with your impeccable cocktail of spices, ingredients, and composition. Thank you for feeding us the most delicious foods ever.
Thank you so much for the lovely review, Arminda! We’re so happy you enjoy the recipes :)
The was so delicious!!! Taste even better the next day!!!
Will definitely make this again!
Thanks for the lovely feedback, Pam!
The was so delicious!!! Really creamy- wow, the coconut milk was a surprise! Taste even better the next day!!!
Will definitely make this again!
Great to hear you’re a fan of the dish, Pam! :)
This was absolutely delicious! The blend of flavors was perfect. I used one can of cannellini beans and one of kidney beans because that’s what I had on hand.
Definitely a keeper for my recipe files
Love the contrast of bitter kale with sweet potato and the beans. Was starving for lunch, so didn’t have time to cook rice so subbed sweet potato.
I enjoyed this – especially the combination of the creamy texture of the beans and the earthy quinoa I used to replace the rice! I did have to add a lot more salt and have absolutely no idea, how you fit 400 g of Kale into this dish! I added 200 g and had no more room left in the pan! Will definitely make this again!
Hi Karo, we’re happy to hear you enjoyed it! And the kale wilts down once added to a hot pan!
I loved this so much! I’ve had cannellini beans before so I was a little nervous, but this was amazing. Bet it’ll be even better next time I make it when I actually have miso :)
Thanks for sharing, Julia! :) We can’t wait for you to try the recipe with miso!
Easy, healthy, delicious, and feels oh so cozy on a cold night. Only had smoked paprika so I used Aleppo pepper this time. My husband and I aren’t strict plant-based eaters but like to be mindful of our meat consumption. We love your recipes! Thank you for sharing them with all of us :)
Eating this felt kind of like eating a fall curry crossed with a bean stew. Super comforting, but also filling and wholesome from the fiber and greens. I think it would also go great with greens as a salad, or with pasta.
I tried not to go off recipe too much, but I was a little limited by what I had on hand. I know the recipe says not to use smoked paprika, but that’s all I had. I think it still tasted great, but next time I’ll use sweet.
I used all wild rice, but I think Nisha’s mix of brown and wild would have been better.
I also added in some baby spinnach at the very end, and I think it came out great.
I’ll definitely be adding this to my rotation. It tastes great, reheats really well, and is super satisfying and filling.
Hi Sarah,
I love your interpretation on this dish! I’m sure the smoked paprika added a nice background smokiness. You can always use plain paprika too if sweet is hard to find.
Very good! I made the mistake of using 1 tbsp of dried thyme leaves because I didnt have fresh, should have used only about a tsp of the thyme since it was dried. Also subbed spinach leaves for kale. Next time I’ll make it exact
Umua, So glad to hear you loved this recipe! Better luck next time with the dried spices :)
Hi, I’d like to try this recipe but what do you mean when you say tomato sauce? Do you mean ketchup or pasta sauce or something else entirely?!
Hi Katharine, we mean canned pureed tomato! It should be next to the crushed/diced tomato cans at the grocery store. We hope you love the recipe!
This recipe was spot on. I had it saved to a Pinterest board for a while but finally took the plunge. My whole family loved it- including my 7 year old and 3 year old. My husband is a firefighter and is super excited to take this recipe and share it at the station. Thank you!
Awesome, Lindsey. Thanks for your comment and for taking the time to review!
Nisha, I have learned I can rely on you for great recipes, but I was a little skeptical of this dish. I just want to say thank you and it’s fantastic! I was surprised by how satisfying and delicious it was, given its simplicity. My daughter even liked it and she notoriously hates everything. Thank you so much for sharing these recipes! I think about 30% of what I cook lately comes from you.
Aw, thank you so much for sharing, Jenny! And thank you for trusting the Rainbow Plant Life recipes for 30% of your meals!
Do you have a brand of miso paste you like?
Hi J, we use Cold Mountain mellow white miso, which is quite easily available at grocery stores out here in San Diego. We don’t have one specific brand recommendation we believe is way better than the others, though, if that’s what you’re asking!
I LOVED this dish. Very easy to make and so much flavor! I made it on a colder spring day and it was perfect. Will definitely make often.
Thank you!
Awesome, Ellen. Thanks for your comment and for taking the time to review!