This past week I was talking to a reporter from MarketWatch and as I told the story of Budget Bytes I joked about being a broke college graduate and not wanting to eat canned beans three times a day. Well, I’m kind of eating my words now because when canned beans are prepared like this, I seriously could eat them all day, every day! This easy Rosemary Garlic White Bean Soup only takes eight simple ingredients, is crazy flavorful, and will give you all those warm cozy fall vibes!
How to Serve Rosemary Garlic White Bean Soup
This soup is fairly simple at heart, but still has bold flavor that stands up on its own, but would also be great with a piece of crusty bread for dipping, or maybe even some Pesto Cheese Toast. That being said, I got creative when I was photographing the soup and started added some fun toppings. I drizzled a little pesto over one bowl, topped another with some homemade croutons, and shaved a bit of fresh Parmesan over another. I can also imagine a little melty gruyere or smoked mozzarella would be fabulous, or even just a dash of hot sauce.
Optional Add-Ins
You know I like to keep things simple, but if you happen to have these ingredients on hand and need to use them up, feel free to toss them into your Rosemary Garlic White Bean Soup:
- Diced carrots, onion, or celery sautéed with the garlic
- Bacon cooked until brown, the fat used in place of the olive oil (remove bacon and add back to the soup after cooking)
- Ham sautéed before the garlic until crispy
- Zucchini added with the beans
- Kale or spinach stirred into the soup at the end
- Lemon juice added to the soup after cooking (1-2 Tbsp)
Can I Use Dry Beans?
You can definitely make a similar soup using dry beans, but it would require several extra steps, which I would need to test before offering instructions. I do have a Slow Cooker White Bean Soup that uses dry beans and some extra vegetables that is a great option.
Can I Make This in an Instant Pot?
Since this soup doesn’t require any fancy techniques, you can probably just use the “soup” function on the Instant Pot (you may still want to use the sauté function for the first step with the garlic and oil). But it’s so fast on the stove top, it might be faster to do it this way than waiting for the IP to come up to pressure and depressurize!
Can I Freeze This Rosemary Garlic White Bean Soup?
Absolutely! This soup will freeze very well. I made a fairly small batch, but you can easily double it and freeze half for later. To double the recipe, change the number of servings in the recipe card below to 8, and all the other ingredients will auto adjust.
You might also like our easy Lemony Chickpea Soup!
Easy Rosemary Garlic White Bean Soup
Servings 4 1.25 cups eachIngredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.32)
- 3 15oz. cans cannellini beans ($1.47)
- 2 cups vegetable (or chicken) broth ($0.26)
- 1/2 tsp dried rosemary ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme ($0.02)
- 1 pinch crushed red pepper ($0.02)
- freshly cracked black pepper to taste ($0.03)
Instructions
- Before you begin, pour one of the cans of cannellini beans (with its liquid) into a blender and purée until smooth. Drain the other two cans of beans.
- Mince the garlic and add it to a soup pot with the olive oil. Sauté the garlic over medium for about one minute, or just until the garlic is very fragrant.
- Add the puréed cannellini beans, the other two cans of drained beans, broth, rosemary, thyme, crushed red pepper, and some freshly cracked pepper. Stir to combine.
- Place a lid on the pot, turn the heat up to medium-high, and bring the soup to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to medium low, remove the lid, and allow it to simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Smash the beans slightly to thicken the soup even more. Taste the soup and add salt if needed (I did not add any, this will depend on the salt content of your broth). Serve hot, with crusty bread for dipping!
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Nutrition
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Scroll down for the step by step photos!
Love beans as much as I do? Check out my entire recipe category dedicated to BEANS! :D
How to Make White Bean Soup – Step by Step Photos
Before you begin, add one can of cannellini beans, with the liquid in the can, to a blender and purée until smooth.
Mince four cloves of garlic and add them to a soup pot with 2 Tbsp olive oil. Sauté over medium for about one minute, or just until the garlic becomes really fragrant.
Add two DRAINED cans of cannellini beans, plus the can of puréed beans to the soup pot.
Also add 2 cups vegetable or chicken broth, 1/2 tsp dried rosemary, 1/4 tsp dried thyme, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and some freshly cracked pepper. Stir to combine.
Place a lid on the pot, turn the heat up to medium-high, and bring it up to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to medium-low, remove the lid, and let it simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. After simmering for 15 minutes, smash some of the beans to thicken the soup even more. Give it a taste and add salt if needed (I did not add any).
Serve the soup hot with crusty bread for dipping, or whatever fun toppings you might have on hand!
This is one of the first recipes I’m making with budget bytes and I love it! Easy and to the point, I love garlic and rosemary and this dish seemed like a good reminder of comfort food without being very unhealthy! This makes me excited to try other recipes here, I’m so glad I found this sitez
We’re glad you found us Maya!
I read Marketwatch daily and was delighted to see the article about you there this morning. I never knew about your financial journey but I was impressed to how you tackled your student debt. Your website is informative and I make many of your recipes with the goal of spending less on food. The bonus is that your recipes are so delicious, I never feel deprived. Much continued success.
Thank you Carol!
I was so pleased to fix this last night until I realized we were out of rosemary! I subbed half of that with sage, the other half with tarragon. My partner and I love garlic, so I tossed in an extra clove. Also I sautéed some matchstick carrots and put them in. Absolutely delicious and easy—though honestly I’m not sure I’d bother with the carrots again.
Does anyone else think mushrooms would be delicious in this?
If you try mushrooms let us know Cora!
With how easy and fast it was with so few ingredients I didn’t expect a lot but this was really good, definitely making again.
Thanks Nancy!
Made this last night for dinner. Added a minced shallot in with the garlic at the start, and used Herbes de Province in place of just rosemary and thyme. Tossed some store-bought croutons on top with a little black pepper and Parmesan cheese, and squeezed a little lemon juice over it. It’s ridiculous how easy it was to make. Looking forward to experimenting with some add-ins.
This is a delicious soup! I always cook my beans from scratch and found that 1 1/2 cups of dried beans created the right amount of bean to replace the 3 cans asked for in the recipe. I also added fresh tomatoes from the garden which gave the soup a lovely hue.
Have to love tomato season!
Thank you Coleen,
Your response is exactly what I was wondering… What if I don’t own canned beans, but only whole/dry beans? 1 1/2 cups of dried beans… Perfect!
I have been reading too many articles from nutritionists that indicate that pre-soaking beans removes vitamins, minerals, starches, and other highly beneficial things from the soup, including taking more time, water, etc… I love the beans cooked rock hard from the instant pot, within 20 minutes, and all vitamins, minerals, starches, and other things are still present in the broth and not dumped out… Pre-soaking never made sense to me, took more time, wasted more water, required extra unnecessary planning day before, required more cooking energy, etc. etc. etc…
So many thoughts on first glance, all of them good. They include: “that looks amazing”, “I’m definitely throwing some spinach in” and “hey, that’s close enough to slow cooker white bean soup that the kids will probably eat that!” I’m very much looking forward to making it, especially since it’s comprised of pantry staples. Yay!
So true Amanda!
I haven’t tried this yet but plan to. I think I am going to quickly roast some of my beans too. I think it would kind of pre – smash them since they open up and add a little more flavor even. I’ll update after I make this.
Keep us posted!
easy, flavorful, healthy, and filling recipe! made some subs & additions that worked fine:
– had only 2 cans of cannellini beans, subbed northern beans for the 3rd can
– don’t have a blender, so I mashed the first can of beans in a metal bowl. not able to get them smooth, but reasonably mashed
– didn’t have any broth or bouillon so I used the liquid from one of the cans of beans and added a tablespoon of butter, plus 1 and a half cups water
– didn’t have rosemary so I subbed an herbs de provence mix (rosemary, thyme, and a few other things) for the herbs
– didn’t have cracked red pepper so I subbed chili powder
– added diced pastrami in the beginning with the garlic
– grated some romano cheese on top
Ok, this is SO quick and easy, and it’s really good. I added onion with the garlic and fresh spinach at the end, and expect I will added some shredded carrot next time, I used tsp of crushed red pepper, and a little extra Better than Bullion.
Yum!
So fast and so simple! I added in some zucchini and only had two cans of beans so I substituted a can of cream of celery soup and didn’t puree any beans. Loved this soup!
I make a similar one with dry beans, in case anyone is looking for that:
Sautee onions and carrots with salt and a few pepper flakes and dried rosemary. Dump into slow cooker. Add white beans, water/broth to an inch or so above the beans, bouillon if you didn’t use broth, cook on low for like 8 hours.
A – Do you soak your beans beforehand? I have a recipe somewhat similar to this, but I’ve made it for years in a pressure cooker. Also saute with bacon drippings. TIA
G. Biggs
Please, NO on the soup function of the IP. It offers a choice of 20 or 50 minutes of pressured cooking! It’s meant to get the flavor out of the bones and veggies and it’s way too much time for canned beans.
That said, this sounds like a delicious alternative to my usual dry bean, ham bone and marjoram flavored bean soup! Thank you.
I agree 100%. Typically, the soup/beans function is more intended for raw ingredients, and the canned beans are usually already cooked. It’s like re-cooking something that’s already cooked.
Read the Market Watch article, Beth and remember your early posts from when I first began following your blog over four years ago! I love your recipes and this one is really a keeper. I have some canned beans in our pantry calling to me. Can’t wait for our Louisiana temps to drop about 20 degrees – 90 in September is crazy!
Thanks for staying with me all these years, Peggy! :)
Wow, looks great! I have dried cannelloni beans that I was going to cook. Do you think you can use cooked beans and another liquid in the blender, or is the can with liquid absolutely necessary to the flavor? Thanks!
I would try to use the liquid that the beans cooked in. That will be the most similar to the liquid in the can of beans. :) It’s not so much a flavor thing, but a texture issue. The starchy liquid helps make the soup nice and thick and creamy.