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!
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!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!
Great recipe! I added carrot, celery, onion, potatoes, kale, and Field Roast sausage. It would be good on it’s own but I love that you can customize it so easily.
Long time follower, first time commenter. I made the suggested version where I cooked bacon and used the drippings to sauté the garlic. Holy crap! Amazing flavor! I also used a salt-free Italian seasoning mix, as I was out of dried rosemary. Will definitely be making again.
Ha! Love this!
As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it! I’m a sucker for any kind of bean soup. I made a batch yesterday and was not disappointed. It’s so simple yet delicious. I didn’t try the suggested add-ins, but will be sure to in the future. This is an instant favorite recipe!
Happy to hear it Beth!
Grr. Went to the grocery last night, found Great Northern beans, grabbed three cans. It turned out that two of the cans I grabbed were butter beans. I have never really used butter beans in anything. Would they work here?
That’s happened to me more than once! I haven’t tried butter beans in this recipe specifically, but I think you could give it a try and it would still be delicious!
This was so easy and delicious! I added some celery, basil and oregano, then used a hand mixer to blend it all until it was smooth and creamy. Soooo tasty and comforting.
Ooh I like the idea of blending!
What a great staple recipe! I always have these ingredients around. This is fantastic!
Thanks Teresa!
I can tell I’m going to make this a lot this fall/ winter! I made a couple small adjustments, like I added bacon and cut the broth in half to make a thicker soup. I loved the finished result with a couple pieces of fresh baked bread as suggested. It tastes so fancy and I can’t believe how simple it was.
This is a new staple! I was blown away by how great the flavor is with how simple the instructions are. This is my second day in a row making it!
Very tasty soup!! I chopped up half an onion and sauteed with the garlic, and doubled the vegetable broth so there’d be enough liquid to simmer 2 carrots and a potato, both diced. Great flavor from the rosemary and thyme. I’m by myself so I’ll probably freeze half for later.
This was AMAZING. I added frozen chopped kale at the end and topped with a healthy pile of melted gruyere/swiss and plated with some extra kale and oyster crackers. I chose to add extra garlic as we love it and a rather large pinch of the crushed red pepper. I thoroughly enjoyed this!
Oh man…gruyere?!? YUM!!
This is great and so easy! I added a tbsp of lemon juice and some frozen spinach I had on hand. Thank you so much for another tasty and healthy vegan recipe!
Great idea Emily!
I’m seriously impressed with the flavor of this soup! I ended up using dry beans and just soaked and cooked them as usual, easy peasy. We had this with your no knead bread and it was so filling and perfectly cosy for the coming fall weather.
Sounds like a perfect fall meal! Happy to hear it Abby!
So simple and delicious!!
I made this last night using dried beans. I used a pound of dry white beans and cooked in a pot in the oven at 200° Fahrenheit for 9 hours. I used 12 cups of water plus the appropriate amount of veggie bouillon powder. I also added a carrot at the beginning and finished the soup off on the stove for an hour and added tomatoes and spinach. This was very good and a very flexible recipe using ingredients I already had on hand. I made drop biscuits with the soup. Next time I would add Tofurky Italian sausages sliced up into the soup for texture. This is a winner in my book, thanks!
Good to know Amber!
Made this for dinner last night, but added a pound of crumbled mild Italian sausage. The flavor was incredible! If you add sausage like I did, recommend using less sodium elsewhere (like the broth) or adding some greens to help cut the saltiness.
Great addition Casey!
Not very experience with cooking, so I’m sorry if this is a dumb question.
If I want to add crumbled sausage like you did, do I need to cook the sausage separately first before adding, or will it cook with the soup? Just worried about raw meat if I decide to use something like crumbled Turkey sausage or something.
Thanks.
Yes, cook the sausage first.