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!
Great taste, super easy and quick, and one pot! How much better can it get? Definitely recommend adding the lemon juice at the end. When I made it for my non-vegetarian daughter, I cooked some cubed ham in the olive oil before adding the garlic. She is not a big fan of beans but LOVED this soup and requested the recipe afterward. Win!
Hooray! Happy to hear it Cheryl.
This soup is amazing!! :) Your vegan and vegetarian recipes make my tummy so happy and my budget happy too! Thank you so much for all you do! Nom! Nom!
Thank you so much!
I need the nutrition specs like size of serving carbs.
We do get that request a lot, but unfortunately we don’t have a reliable source for the nutrition information. The calculators and databases that most bloggers and websites use to calculate the info can be extremely inaccurate, and for something that can so severely impact the health of people with health conditions, we just don’t feel comfortable publishing unreliable numbers. We prefer to leave it up to the reader to use the database or calculator they trust. I’m sorry and I wish accuracy were easier than shipping the food off to a lab for analysis!
This was so good, I made it as written but substituted dried beans for canned as that’s what I had on hand.
I cooked the beans with some rosemary, garlic, lemon zest and bay leaves in my InstantPot until they were tender, then proceeded with the recipe as written. The flavored beans really kicked it up a notch!
Oh wow, that sounds amazing. I’m going to have to try it that way next time. Thanks for sharing!
I’m all about cooking my own beans. How much bean cooking liquid did you sub for the liquid that would have been in a can? Thanks a lot!
From now until spring these ingredients will be in my pantry. I have no self control around crusty bread so I paired it with basic cornbread nice combination. East, warm and comforting after a stressful day.
Ha! Sounds delightful!
Kitchen smelled sooo good, I to added onion, celery, carrots. At the end added Lemon juice and spinach……so easy and oh SOOO GOOD!! it was just me for supper tonight, when I make it next time (OH THERE WILL BE A NEXT TIME!!) I will need to double or triple it : )
Hooray! Happy to hear it Lisa!
I made this soup yesterday and it was so good we had it again for dinner tonight! Fast and easy to make too. This recipe is a keeper! Thank you!
Happy to hear it Barb!
I loved this recipe! Tastes so good and fills you up really nice. I added celery, carrots, onions, AND bacon! The bacon really added that touch of deliciousness. Lol! Added a lot of salt too because the broth I used was low sodium.
Thanks Carolina!
I left out Rosemary and added diced ham. This was so DELICIOUS! I loved how creamy the pureed beans made the soup. I will definitely be making this recipe again.
I followed this recipe exactly but added some carrots. It was super easy, but I felt it was missing something, as it was a bit bland. I’ll definitely make it again and will try adding onions and lemon juice.
Let us know how it goes next time Stacey!
This recipe is so great! So comforting on a cold night. I was actually sad when my bowl was empty, lol. I don’t like spiciness usually but the pinch of red pepper flakes really gives it a nice amount of heat. I added onion, carrot, and 1tbsp of lemon juice to mine. Such an easy recipe to make and a definite keeper.
Aww yay! Thanks Sara!
This is the second time I’ve made this and with this round, I added carrots, mushrooms and celery. Absolutely delicious! Thank you so much for the recipe!
Oh great additions! Thanks for sharing!
Any other suggestions in place of Rosemary? Reallllly dislike it😝
I would do oregano. :)
Use fresh thyme and a bay leaf!
This soup was amazing, with the addition of the lemon juice. It tasted fine without but adding it really bumped it up. I did find the 4 servings to be on the light side, so in the future i would consider it 2 BIG servings or 3 moderate servings. Very quick and easy to make.
Thanks Kaitlin!
I really enjoyed this dish and was surprised at how simple it was. I basically had all the ingredients already, with the exception of the beans. It was creamy and filling, perfect for a fall day
It’s the best when you already have what you need! Thanks for sharing Sally.