We get it – white bean soup doesn’t exactly excite the taste buds and urges you to go to the store right this second to get the ingredients to make it. But the problem isn’t the soup itself, but the recipes that you’ve been following until now.
Trust us, today your mind is going to change over our white bean soup recipe. Goodbye to the thought of beans being boring, and hello to your new favorite staple meal.
Not only is this recipe delicious, it is also vegan-friendly, easy to make, and inexpensive! The entire process will only take you about 20 minutes, which is perfect after a long day at work when you really don’t want to cook over a hot stove for hours.
Not only that, but each serving will only cost you around $1 to make! That’s a budget-friendly meal if we’ve ever seen it.
Let’s quickly learn more about how to make white bean soup!
What Do You Need to Make White Bean Soup?
All you’ll need are a few cans of beans, some vegetables, and two top-secret ingredients (that we’ll let you in on later in the article).
These ingredients make for a mouthwatering and moreish soup that will have you putting white beans on every future meal.
If you weren’t sold on this soup recipe enough already, we think that the amazing nutrition that it offers will solidify the deal.
So, what are we waiting for? Let’s get into this amazing white bean soup recipe so that you can make it for yourself and your family tonight.
White Bean Soup Recipe
What you’ll need:
2 cans of white beans – our favorites are butter beans or cannellini
As you can see, the ingredients list is quite small and succinct. The great thing about any soup is that you can make it with almost anything that you have lying around in your fridge.
So, look what the current situation is and see if there are any more vegetables that you can include.
If you don’t like paprika, substitute it for another spice or herb. The same goes for almost any of the ingredients – if you don’t like one, swap it for something that you do like.
You can also swap the vegetable broth for hot water, although this might lose some of the flavors from the soup.
Now for the moment, you’ve all been waiting for, here is the method of how you’re going to make your white bean soup. This recipe serves four people and takes 5 minutes preparation time with 20 minutes cooking time.
Step 1: Preparing Your Vegetables
Chop your onions, carrots, celery, and other vegetables into little square chunks. You’ll also want to do this for the potatoes.
Peel and crush your garlic and set aside for later. Depending on the beans you’re using, you might need to drain them or even soak them.
Read the back of the cans to see what you need to do to prepare them before using them to cook with.
Prepare any of your other ingredients to make your life a little easier in the future. For example, chop the parsley and measure out the white wine.
Now you should have all of your ingredients ready to go as and when you need them in the recipe.
Step 2: Saute the Vegetables
Heat up a pan with a little olive oil over medium heat. Wait for it to come to temperature before adding your chopped vegetables such as carrot, celery, and onion.
Saute these for five minutes or until the onion has softened and is turning translucent.
Bear in mind that this pan is the pan that the entirety of the soup will be in. So, make sure that you’re using one large enough to hold your soup.
We must admit that we have fallen down the unfortunate rabbit hole of using a pan that was too small.
To rectify the issue was not a fun task in the slightest. So, don’t make the same mistake we did – use the biggest pan you have to be on the safe side.
Step 3: Add Some More!
Add the crushed garlic, tomato paste, cans of beans, potatoes, rosemary, and paprika to your pan. Remember that you can switch out any of these ingredients if you don’t like them, so don’t feel like you have to use paprika.
We just think that it adds a delicious spice to an already delicious soup. Cook all of these ingredients together for around one minute, stirring constantly to avoid anything burning at the bottom and ensuring that everything is being heated evenly.
Step 4: White Wine Time
Add your wine to the pan and stir it into the ingredients well. Allow the wine to simmer until it has all evaporated and there is no more liquid left at the bottom of the pan. This shouldn’t take longer than one minute.
Be mindful of the ingredients sticking to the bottom of the pan while you’re waiting for the liquid to simmer down. If you suspect that something is beginning to stick and burn, give the ingredients a quick stir to prevent it.
Step 5: More Additions
Once all of the wine has been evaporated you can now add your spinach, vegetable broth, and a nice helping of salt and pepper. Taste the soup before and after adding the salt and pepper to see if you need more.
Always start with the ethos that less is more, as you can always add more but can’t take away!
Step 6: Bring to the Boil
Bring your soup to a boil by increasing the heat. Once it is boiling and bubbling, cover the pot with its lid and rescue the heat to a gentle simmer. Cook for 15 minutes, ensuring that the soup doesn’t begin to boil again.
The optimal word here is gentle. Although you might like to pop off away from the kitchen and spend this time doing something more exciting, it is best to watch the cooking pot to ensure that all your hard work isn’t wasted.
Cooking your soup any more vigorously than gently will cause the vegetables to turn to mush and ruin the texture of your soup. So, watch the pot and turn down the heat any time you think that it might be getting too lively underneath the lid.
Step 7: Remove from the Heat
Once the 15 minute cooking time is up, remove the lid carefully and poke one of the potatoes with a fork. If the potato is soft, and the soup is creamy and thick in consistency, then you can remove the pot from the heat.
Give it another taste test and see if you need any more salt, pepper, or other seasonings. Alternatively, you can skip this part and let your family season their own soup later on when you’ve served it.
The amount of salt and pepper you’ll need will depend on the ingredients used and the type of broth. Don’t worry if you need considerably more seasoning than us, we’ve probably just used a different set of ingredients.
Step 8: Serve and Enjoy
Spoon the soup into bowls and drizzle a little olive oil on top of each portion. Add some more ground pepper if you’re a family who loves black pepper.
Serve with some thick slices of crusty bread and sprinkle some grated cheese on top if you want to!
Just remember to use vegan-friendly cheese if you’re keeping the recipe vegan. Call your family to the table and sit down for a lovely homemade dinner – enjoy!
Recipe Notes
You can make your own vegetable broth by boiling some vegetable scraps and herbs in water for 5 to 10 minutes.
This allows you to reuse your vegetable scraps and saves you some money. However, if you’re short on time you can use readymade vegetable broth from the store.
Some broths are saltier than others, so make sure you’re taste-testing before adding more seasoning to your recipes. Start off with a small amount of salt to prevent creating a soup that is much too salty.
Fresh rosemary is best to use in this recipe, but bear in mind that if you’re using a full sprig you’ll probably lose the leaves into the soup.
If you don’t want to eat entire leaves of rosemary at a time, chop them up finely before adding them to the soup.
We use frozen spinach in the soup to avoid it being over-cooked too quickly, but you can use fresh spinach too. Just add it to the pot five minutes before your soup is finished cooking.
Bear in mind that frozen spinach will weigh more than fresh spinach, so you’ll need to use more spinach if using fresh leaves.
Nutritional Values
All of this information is based on one serving or a ¼ of your pot of soup. This white bean soup is low in calories and fat, high in fiber and protein, with plenty of nutrients to aid your vegan lifestyle.
Calories: 350
Protein: 19 grams
Fat: 5 grams
Saturated fat: 1 gram
Carbohydrates: 57 grams
Sodium: 160 milligrams
Potassium: 1593 milligrams
Fiber: 13 grams
Sugar: 5 grams
Vitamin A: 14400 IU
Vitamin C: 18 milligrams
Calcium: 238 milligrams
Iron: 9 milligrams
Frequently Asked Questions
Now we will answer some of the most common questions that people have about white bean soup, as well as this recipe that we have mentioned above.
If you can take yourself away from your bowl long enough to read this section, you might just learn something interesting about your new favorite dish!
Is white bean soup good for you?
Yes, white beans are incredibly healthy and nutritious. Cannoli beans are our favorite and they come with great nutritional value that makes us like them even more.
Not only are they low in calories, but they’re also full of minerals, antioxidants, and fiber. White beans are considered a great food for people following the vegan diet due to the added fiber and protein.
The vegan diet offers plenty of benefits to your body and the environment, but it can be difficult getting enough protein from sources that don’t contain meat. White beans are a great substitute for meat for vegans and vegetarians.
If you weren’t sold on white beans enough, they’re also incredibly filling so that you can eat smaller portions without feeling hungry again right away. This makes them a great food for people looking to lose weight.
The white beans are not the only healthy thing in the soup; however, as you also have plenty of vegetables full of vitamins and minerals. Carrots are a great source of vitamin A, B, K, and potassium.
Celery offers you plenty of vitamin C as well as antioxidants. Onions and garlic are full of vitamin C, B6, folate, and potassium, as well as much more. Spinach is an excellent source of vitamin K and magnesium, calcium, and phosphorus.
These aren’t even all of the nutrient-rich ingredients found within this white bean soup recipe, either! Plus, if you add more of your own vegetables you’ll be getting even more nutrients than we’ve listed.
Overall, this white bean soup is incredibly good for you in a number of ways. You can make it even healthier by removing the crusty roll side and just serving the soup on its own.
What white beans should you use?
Cannellini beans are our favorite type of white beans, but you can use whichever is your favorite. You can even use more than one type of white bean to add more flavor and texture to the mix.
Cannellini beans are large and meatier than other white beans, with a nutty flavor and a tender texture.
They’re often used in soups and sometimes fall under the category of ‘white kidney beans. They cook well without losing their shape or texture, making them ideal for soups.
Navy beans are another option, with a mild flavor and high fiber content. Navy beans get creamy once you cook them and lose their hardness quickly, making them best for purees and dips.
However, they can be used in white bean soup if you don’t mind the soft texture.
The third option is great northern beans, similar to cannellini beans but smaller in size. They also have a nutty flavor with a firm texture. These beans hold their shape better than navy beans, making them a good choice for soups.
Finally, baby lima beans are small white beans otherwise known as butter beans. They’re creamy and small with a buttery texture and flavor, and they can bring a lot of flavor to your soups.
Our personal favorites are cannellini beans and butter beans, but you can find your own favorite combination.
What makes this white bean soup recipe taste so good?
You might be wondering why this white bean soup tastes so good and what the magic ingredients are.
Well, the reason for the amazing flavors is both concerning the way the soup has been cooked as well as the mixture of ingredients.
For starters, slowly cooking the vegetables in a splash of olive oil does more than you might think.
This Italian technique is called ‘sofrito’ and creates a base for any dish that is much more flavorful and enjoyable than simply boiling the vegetables in a broth.
So, already this white bean soup has a great base that is going to give it a boost of flavor that other recipes might not have.
Next up are the white beans, rosemary, potato, and white wine. Two of these are the secret ingredients that we mentioned earlier – the rosemary and white wine, of course!
The white wine offers a nice amount of acidity and aroma that takes the dish to another level.
Rosemary offers a woody taste with hints of pine, lavender, sage, evergreen, pepper, citrus, and mint. Add this to the already nutty flavors of the white beans and you have yourself a winner.
Finish your soup off with some ground black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.
These offer a lovely amount of final flavor as well as some awesome health benefits. Using all of these techniques and ingredients together is why this white bean soup recipe is better than the rest.
If you have leftovers of this soup, our first question would be: How? If you want to save the rest of your soup to eat another day, it will keep well in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days as long as it is kept in an airtight container.
This is possible thanks to the absence of any cream-based ingredients that you often find in soups.
If you want your soup to last even longer than this, you can also freeze the soup. Pour the soup into an airtight container, ensuring that there is at least one inch of space between the top of the soup and the lid. Store in the freezer for up to two months.
Again, this is made possible thanks to there being no cream-based ingredients in the soup that could separate during the freezing process. Just make sure that you date the container to avoid leaving it too long.
Today your mind is going to change over our white bean soup recipe. Goodbye to the thought of beans being boring, and hello to your new favorite staple meal. Not only is this recipe delicious, it is also vegan-friendly, easy to make, and inexpensive! The entire process will only take you about 20 minutes, which is perfect after a long day at work when you really don’t want to cook over a hot stove for hours.
Ingredients
2 cans of white beans – our favorites are butter beans or cannellini
1 celery stalk
1 medium-sized onion
1 large carrot
Any other vegetable you want to throw in there
2 garlic cloves
1 cup frozen spinach
2 medium-sized potatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
⅓ cup white wine
1 sprig rosemary
1 tbsp olive oil, plus a drizzle for serving
½ tsp paprika
2 cups vegetable broth
Salt and pepper
Directions
Chop the vegetables and potatoes into little square chunks. Peel and crush your garlic and set aside for later and also get the other ingredients ready. Depending on the beans you’re using, you might need to drain them or even soak them. Now you should have all of your ingredients ready to go as and when you need them in the recipe.
Heat up a pan with a little olive oil over medium heat. Wait for it to come to temperature before adding your chopped vegetables such as carrot, celery, and onion. Saute these for five minutes or until the onion has softened and is turning translucent.
Add the crushed garlic, tomato paste, cans of beans, potatoes, rosemary, and paprika to your pan. Remember that you can switch out any of these ingredients if you don’t like them, so don’t feel like you have to use paprika. Cook all of these ingredients together for about one minute, stirring constantly to avoid anything burning at the bottom and ensuring that everything is being heated evenly.
Add your wine to the pan and stir it into the ingredients well. Allow the wine to simmer until it has all evaporated and there is no more liquid left at the bottom of the pan. This shouldn’t take longer than one minute. Be mindful of the ingredients sticking to the bottom of the pan while you’re waiting for the liquid to simmer down.
Once all of the wine has been evaporated you can now add your spinach, vegetable broth, and a nice helping of salt and pepper. Taste the soup before and after adding the salt and pepper to see if you need more.
Bring your soup to a boil by increasing the heat. Once it is boiling and bubbling, cover the pot with its lid and rescue the heat to a gentle simmer. Cook for 15 minutes, ensuring that the soup doesn’t begin to boil again.
Once the 15 minute cooking time is up, remove the lid carefully and poke one of the potatoes with a fork. If the potato is soft, and the soup is creamy and thick in consistency, then you can remove the pot from the heat. Give it another taste test and see if you need any more salt, pepper, or other seasonings.
