White Bean Soup

A bowl of bean soup is filling and flavorful, and this white bean soup recipe has quickly become a new family favorite. It’s creamy, satisfying, and so delightful. White bean soup is simple food with real ingredients. Better yet, it’s easy to make (and it’s a one pan meal, so clean-up is a breeze!).

P.S. If you’re looking for a bean soup recipe that’s a copycat of Campbell’s bean with bacon soup (only much better!), try my bean and bacon soup recipe. Similar to this white bean soup, you can use either canned or dry beans to make it, and it’s wildly popular.

Creamy White Bean Soup

Creamy and satisfying. Great Northern beans are large white beans that have a creamy consistency and mild flavor. I like to use a stick blender to purée a couple cups of the soup which gives it a really nice texture.

Nutritious and delicious. You can feel good about serving this vegetarian bean soup. It has lots of healthy vegetables, plant protein, and very little fat. If you’re more accustomed to canned soup, you’ll be glad to know that homemade bean soup has much less sodium than commercial soups.

Not a fussy meal to make. Other than chopping a few vegetables, there isn’t a lot of work involved in making bean soup. Dry beans have to be soaked overnight but that’s pretty easy to do. You can even cut up the veggies the night before to reduce the prep time. One of the big reasons I love soup is that it isn’t fussy with time. It can simmer on the stove until we’re ready to eat. Even if someone misses dinnertime completely, soup is easy to reheat.

A one pan meal. You only need one large pot or Dutch oven to cook the soup. That means easy clean-up and that’s always a good thing.

Ingredient Notes

• Great Northern Beans: The recipe has instructions for making the soup with either dry beans or canned beans. I personally think the soup with dry beans has better flavor than the canned bean version. However, both are perfectly acceptable and canned beans are easier and faster. If you choose canned beans, look for the low sodium variety, if possible.
• Onions, Carrots, Celery, and Garlic: These savory vegetables add so much great flavor. I usually end up throwing in extra, and maybe a bell pepper, too.
• Baby Spinach (or another leafy green): Really, any type of greens can be added to white bean soup (or they can be omitted, too). Ultra-tender baby spinach is added right before serving so it retains its color. If you use a green that is a little tougher, such as kale, it will take extra cooking time. Large leaves should be chopped finely, with the ribs removed.
• Chicken Broth: You’ll need a couple of cartons of chicken broth, another common pantry item. Look for low sodium broth. If you only have vegetable broth, no problem. You can even use water if that’s all you have, but the soup won’t be quite as flavorful.
• Seasoning: This white bean soup soup is subtly seasoned with a combination of herbs and spices. I like to use dried rosemary, a bay leaf, smoked paprika and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Salt and pepper is added to taste.

How To Make White Bean Soup

Soak the beans. If you buy a bag of dry beans, you can usually find instructions for how to soak the beans. There are two easy methods: overnight (8 hours or more) or quick soak which takes about an hour and 15 minutes. If you’re using canned beans, you can skip this step.

Cook the vegetables. Heat a large soup pan with a little oil. Add chopped onions, carrots, and celery to the pan, stirring and cooking until they soften. Add a bit of garlic and stir until the mixture is fragrant, about a minute.

Add broth, beans, and herbs. Once the vegetables are softened, add the remaining ingredients, except for the spinach. Bring the contents of the pan to a boil.

Simmer. Once the soup is boiling, turn the heat down to low, cover (or partially cover) the pan and let the bean soup simmer. If you used dry beans, the soup will require more cooking time to tenderize the beans (60 to 90 minutes). If you used canned beans, the soup will be ready to eat in about a half hour. It doesn’t matter really how long you simmer bean soup so if you’re not quite ready for dinner yet, no problem.

Purée some of the soup. After you remove the bay leaf, you’re going to purée part of the soup. Puréeing 2 cups of the soup gives this soup a creamy, thick texture without adding any cream. I like to use my blender, but a food processor would also work. Always be VERY careful when you’re blending hot liquids. When you’re done blending, return it to the pot of soup.

Add Spinach. Spinach wilts quickly, so you can wait until the very end to add it. If you’re using a tougher green such as kale, you’ll want to add it earlier (this will change the appearance of your soup and make it more green since you’ll end up pureeing some of the greens).

Serve. Keep the soup on low heat until you’re ready to eat. Taste the soup before you serve it and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Garnish the soup with fresh parsley, if you have it. A sprinkle of Parmesan cheese is really great, too! I like to serve this soup with crackers or if I’m feeling ambitious, corn bread or homemade rolls. Beer bread is pretty amazing, too.

Recipe Variations

• Add meat. Although this bean soup recipe is vegetarian, if you prefer, you can add cooked bacon or pancetta, sausage, or diced ham.
• Substitute kale for the spinach. Since kale takes a bit more time to tenderize, add it to the vegetables and sauté it briefly to soften it before you add the beans and broth. Another option is to omit the greens entirely. The soup tastes great either way.
• Add more vegetables: Pretty much anything goes with soup. Add diced bell peppers, mushrooms, or whatever you like. Diced sweet potato is good, too.
• Looking for a crockpot recipe? Try slow cooker chicken kale soup with cannellini beans. It’s somewhat similar to this bean soup recipe.

Head start: Soak the beans the night before. If you have extra time, chop the onions, carrots, and celery and refrigerate them. When dinner comes, you’ll have that portion of the recipe ready to go.

Freeze it: This white bean soup freezes well. Make a double batch and freeze half for an easy dinner in the future.

Refrigerate/Freeze: Store leftover white bean soup in a tightly covered container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days or in the freezer for up to a month. Thaw overnight in the fridge for best results before reheating.

Reheating: Heat the bean soup in a saucepan on the stove or by the bowlful in the microwave. This soup makes great lunches.

Free Meal Plan

Interested in a weekly meal plan that includes this soup recipe? Take a look at Meal Plan #52. You’ll find a wholesome recipe for each weekday plus a categorized grocery list. We add a new meal plan weekly.

• Rinse and sort dried beans. Soak the beans overnight, or use the quick soak method, as directed on package. Drain beans after soaking.

  16 oz. dry great Northern beans

• Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions, carrots, celery, salt, and pepper; cook, stirring frequently, until softened and onions are translucent, 5 to 6 minutes. Add garlic, cooking and stirring for 1 minute until fragrant.

  1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 cup diced yellow onion, 1 cup diced carrots, 1 cup diced celery, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, ¼ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper, 3 cloves garlic, minced

• Add broth (see note if using canned beans), soaked beans (or canned beans – see note), rosemary, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, and bay leaf. Increase heat to medium high and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat. Simmer 60 to 90 minutes or until beans are very tender.

  8 cups reduced sodium chicken or vegetable broth, ½ teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika, ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, 1 bay leaf

• Remove bay leaf. Remove 2 cups of the soup and use a blender to purée mixture. Return puréed mixture back to soup.

• Add spinach and allow to wilt. If you’re not ready to eat, keep the soup warm over low heat.

  5 ounces loosely packed baby spinach, roughly chopped

• Serve garnished with chopped fresh parsley or shredded Parmesan cheese, if desired.

• Using canned beans: Substitute 3 cans (15.5 oz.) cannellini or great Northern beans, rinsed and drained for the dry beans. You’ll only need 4 cups of broth. Cook soup as directed, cooking for 30 to 35 minutes after you add the beans, or until vegetables are tender. Yield: 8 cups.
• Greens: Any type of greens can be used. Chop large leaves finely. If the greens are tougher, such as kale, allow more cooking time, adding them when you add the broth. If you’d rather not have greens in your bean soup, feel free to omit them.
• Blending: We used an immersion blender with the blending cup it came with to blend 2 cups of the soup. It worked well, but a normal blender or a bullet-style blender should work as well.
• Recipe retested and revised 11/24. Previously published as White Bean Soup With Kale and Pancetta. If you like, brown 5 oz. pancetta in the pan with a tablespoon of oil. Remove from pan; continue with recipe. Add 4 cups baby kale to the pan, briefly wilt with the other vegetables. Cook the soup as directed, stirring in the pancetta before serving.

Serving: 1.5cups, Calories: 357kcal, Carbohydrates: 57g, Protein: 24g, Fat: 5g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 3g, Sodium: 348mg, Potassium: 1613mg, Fiber: 17g, Sugar: 5g, Vitamin A: 5923IU, Vitamin C: 15mg, Calcium: 192mg, Iron: 6mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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