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!
I just made this with a side of wheat toast and roasted veggies. SO GOOD! I’ve loved pretty much everything you’ve posted and with this recipe I found a new regular for soup night. Thank you!
Dear Beth,
This was really lovely! Thank you so much for sharing these budget-proof and tasty recipes freely!
I only have fresh thyme leftover from another recipe- how much fresh would I use?
Dried herbs are more potent. Typically the rule is that you use three times as much fresh herbs than dried. But you can start with just a little bit more and taste to see what you prefer!
I didn’t read the recipe thoroughly enough and only bought 2 cans of beans, but I had one can of chickpeas so decided why not! I did do the method at the end with the potato masher just to make everything thicker. I can totally see adding in just 2 cans of beans, one small-medium potato and a carrot or 2. Really, really good! And very easy.
Just in case anyone looks at this recipe and is ready to turn away because they don’t have a blender or don’t want to fuss with one: I put the one can of beans and liquid in a bowl and gave them a good thrashing with my potato masher to get it roughly ‘blended,’ and the end result was great! I broke up the beans a little more after cooking, as suggested in the recipe, and it turned out beautifully.
So good!! I started by sauteeing an onion and jalapeno with the garlic and spices in some white wine and a little bit of dijon mustard. Then followed the recipe pretty much as written, with a little more wine. I used an immersion blender at the end instead of pureeing at the beginning just because it’s a less annoying appliance to clean, and then added half a bunch of kale to bulk up the soup and give it some color. Planning to make it again at the end of the week when this batch runs out!
LOVE this soup!! Something I do when I make this is after I purée the can of beans in the blender and add them to the pot. I pour the veg stock in the blender, give it a quick spin to get all the remaining yummy bean mash out of the blender. YUM!!
Super easy! Super yum!
– sauteed onion, yellow bell, and two carrots and then cooked in pressure cooker at High for five minutes, quick release
– garnished with very healthy serving of baby kale (from our garden!) and a smidge plus of finely chopped preserved lemon (prepared by a dear friend). Yes!
This recipe is outstanding and super simple to make. This soup is comfort food! I followed the recipe without adding the optional ingredients and it had ton of good flavor from the garlic and rosemary. I served it with a side of blanched asparagus and a side of French loaf bread toasted with butter. Will definitely make this meal again!
This was SUPER easy and tasty. I did add more to it though, so maybe that made it 5 star. :)
I can’t imagine making soup without at least onions, so I started by sautéing onions, carrots and celery (should’ve cooked them longer). Then I followed the rest, although used fresh rosemary. I finished with squeezing 1/2 a lemon. It made 4 servings for me. I didn’t have spinach but I will add that next time.
This was really fast and easy! Delicious! It’s going to be one of my new go-to recipes. Thank you!
This was so easy to make and so warm and comforting. It was like eating a hug. I added carrots and celery that I had in the fridge that needed to be used up.
This is one of my favorite recipes! I can’t wait to make it again this week and try some more of the variations.
Have you tried using an immersion blender instead of a separate blender for the beans? I always forget about using mine and I wondered if there’s any reason not to!
I used my immersion blender & it worked great! It just seemed to take longer with the beans. I’d much rather use it than my regular blender though!
Love this soup! I like to add mushrooms and some shredded spinach or other green leaves. Tastes amazing.
LOVE this! I’m a relatively new cook, only started cooking seriously a year ago. I’m generally not a huge soup person and have never really made it at home before. Easy, tasty, and budget friendly. Thank you Beth! It made me SO happy when my fiance turned to me halfway through the meal and said “Oh….this one’s a winner. Good find babe”
A couple of suggestions both from Beth and myself:
– At the beginning of the recipe, Beth mentions some flexible add-ins, including lemon juice and spinach. I added the lemon and spinach and it made a HUGE difference. Strongly recommend, a must-use in my opinion!
– When I made it, we added a little bit of flour to make it less watery and make it more of a stew. A personal preference, but I recommend it nonetheless!