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!
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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
Ingredients
- 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
Video
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!
The addition of onion, carrots, and celery elevated the soup, bacon would have been 5 stars. It was very easy to make!
I definitely recommend this soup, and I’ll be making it again. It would be an easy weeknight meal.
Have you tried this in a slow cooker? (Still sautรฉing the garlic first. My stovetop is on the fritz and wonโt simmer things.)
I think as long as you cook it on low and don’t let the beans get too mushy you should definitely be able to! You could also reference this recipe if you want to do the slow cooker using dried beans https://www.budgetbytes.com/slow-cooker-white-bean-soup//
Carrotsm onions and celery? Why not tell it as it is SOFRITO? Sofrito added toeverythig in Italy and in Frqnce by another name
But remember any recipe on the web is s PERSONAL opinion on a theme so expeiment For instance CHICK PEAS or even GARDEN Paes instead of Canellii butter beans
Why not try a SOFRITO base . I see that there are a few comments about using various veg such na CELERY and CARROTS + OONION equals SOFRITO.
CUPS and KILOS do NOT mix. Period And I’d blitz TWO cans instead of one.
My blood pressure cooking classes all recommend draining and rinsing canned beans to get rid of some of the sodium.
Made this soup and it was super easy!!! I love beans but surprisingly this was a bit too savory for my taste. However, my family loved it and it did taste great with croutons and bread. โค๏ธ
I too love beans, any kind. I did not know that cannelli beans in the crockpot does not break down the digestive toxin. At any rate, is there anyway to reduce the sodium in this Easy Rosemary White Bean Soup as I have to monitor my blood pressure? If it is from the cans of bean, can I just precook a bag of white beans to save on sodium and then follow the rest of the recipe?
Using dried beans instead of canned and making sure you use low-sodium broth would be your best bets. :)
Absolutely delish. Had some parmesan rind on hand, too, and tossed it in to cook down with everything else and can’t recommend it enough!
Delicious, easy, and nutritious. A perfect recipe.
BEANS BEANS BEANS!!! This soup is GREAT for a cozy dinner all snuggled up with a blanket with some thick Crusty bread. It definitely has the thickness and texture of beans as opposed to a traditional brothy soup. It’s super cheap and tasty af!!!
I’ll be honest, I basically only use budget bytes recipes now bc they’re super cheap and delicious! Also their easiest recipes are still super tasty! 20/10 :)
I liked this soup but I used around double the garlic called for and next time I think Iโll add some onion- but really really good especially with bread
This is my favourite soup recipe ๐ฅฐ I have a weird sensory thing with whole beans so I purรฉe all three cans (two drained, one not) and it turns out perfect for me every time. It’s a great base for using up any leftover vegetables or meat as well, absolutely everything seems to work well with this. Thank you!
Very nice white bean with rosemary soup
I chopped and added one small yellow onion, a carrot and two stalks of celery, to the garlic and sautรฉed slightly.
I froze two servings for a lazy day soup craving.
Holy cow this looks brilliant with the can of beans being pulverized, adding the immediate creaminess! But, girl I just looked at the sodium level 1400? Where from what? Iโm trying to save my husband from a heart attack, not give him one!
The nutrition stats are calculated automatically using an ingredient database, and those databases generally don’t specify drained or undrained beans. So I’m assuming it’s calculating including the liquid from all three cans, which is going to result in an inflated sodium figure. It’s important to remember that nutrition stats are always a broad estimate, at best.
I make this soup all the time. Quick, easy and delicious. I cut the garlic in half as I am food sensitive to garlic, and add some carrots and/ or celery if I have some on hand. Like a lot of soups I like this one better the next day – flavors meld. I love the addition of red pepper flakes
CUPS and KILOS do NOT mix. Period And I’d blitz TWO cans instead of one. But ite a matter of choice, What bugs me though is the inability of even apparently n intelligent peope people to do very very simple ARITHMETC Or bthe inability to apply a little originality and simple experimentation I’d try blitzing ALL the beans and garlic and a litte Full,Fat cream to make a CREAM SOUP,
Surely it’s the very essence once the basics are mastered, of home cooking to experiment.