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 soup is great. I have a propane stove as here in Cape Breton we don’t have natural gas but even on simmer setting on the smallest back burner, I find the soup still “blops”. If I put a cover on it, it boils. Any suggestions?
Buy a “Simmer Mat”. Mine is a metal hexagon with indentations that limits the contact between my pan and the burner.
Thank you so much for this beat ever super easy recipe! It was love at the first bite (about 8 month ago)and been making it ever since 2-4 x per month. I add either kale, spinach or cabbage and all work amazing. Use Aldi chicken bone broth,celery,carrots and sometimes parsnip and turnip or all.. in love!
I just made this for lunch and it was so SO tasty! I threw in some baby yukon potatoes that I had on hand, but otherwise stuck to the recipe – absolutely delicious! 10/10, will make again. Thanks for the recipe!
I made this soup one night out of a drunken impulse. I threw in fresh rosemary from my garden instead of dried, replaced one can of white beans with red kidney beans, and also cooked up some diced bacon before adding in the rest of the ingredients.
I ate the entire pot in one night.
The. Entire. Pot.
If this soup is lacking flavor for you, I would highly recommend the bacon and fresh rosemary, if you can swing it. I have some celery in the fridge that might turn soon and also some nutritional yeast. I will probably experiment with those additions when I make this soup again tonight.
I make this soup every other week, and serve with greens & the super easy homemade bread recipe from https://leitesculinaria.com/. Sooooo good. To the soup, I add 3 strips of bacon, chopped, and a small chopped onion. Even my kids (5 and 3) eat it up.
Its ok but I really thought it would be more flavorful.
This is a delicious recipe! I added some extras to it but this would also be yummy as written. So creamy and filling! I added onion, carrots, celery, and potatoes to mine as well as lemon juice, white miso, nutritional yeast, and frozen chopped kale at the end because I had these things on hand and needed to use the veggies!! This is a delicious, creamy soup recipe that can be personalized to your preference so I give this two big thumbs up!! Definitely making it as written when I’m out of veggies :-)
The servings on here are very inaccurate. I did the 4 servings, with the 15.5oz canella beans AND 3 cups of vege broth. This increased ratio gave me 3 bowl fulls, none left over.
If you intend to make this dish for 4 people, best just go for the 8 servings
A bowl is not a bowl is not a bowl. Serving size versus bowl size are not the same thing either. What you consider to being a serving does not make it correct.
My parents made a different version of this for years &, as far as I know , I’m the only one who still does. Ido not drain the cannelli beans or add chicken broth(i always make my own chicken broth, no sodium). Iput a little water in one of the cans after dumping the beans to the pot. Stir the creamy contents on the bottom of the can & pour it into the next can & so on. I add FG black peeper & oregano to taste. It comes out thick & creamy, just the way I like it. I will try the rosmary next time as I don’t use nearly enough in my cooking.
Forgot to mention, Serve with garlic toast made in the broiler. extra virgin olive oil spread on white , french ,or itailan bread(white being my favorite for this) , a healthy dose of garlic powder & some small dabs of paper thin shavings of butter. On foil in broiler, PAY ATTENTION, check every 10-15 seconds. Yum!
As someone who’s not a big fan of beans, I’m not a big fan of this recipe. I figured I’d try it to use up two cups of vegetable broth and I was disappointed. Still good with bread though.
I love this soup so much. I like to add onion, carrots and zucchini, as well as spinach and plant based sausage. I also put a bunch of lemon and nutritional yeast in at the end with a good shake of hot sauce!
It looks quick, easy and yummy!
Can I make it with kidney beans?
Technically you can do something similar with just about any bean, just keep in mind that every bean has a different flavor and color. Kidney beans are in the same family as cannellini beans, but I think the mild creamy flavor and light color of cannellini beans work better for this recipe.
This looks really good during the cold months, I can’t wait to try it! One thing I think that’s worth mentioning is that the cost seems to be relative. I live on the west coast, so one can of white beans costs .99 cents which would bring us closer to $3 for just the beans. I’m guessing this will really depend on where you live for that to be accurate. Regardless, the recipe looks delish and the cost of the soup will be low. Win win! Thank you for the recipe!
I know this is from a few months ago, but it might be worthwhile to look into getting dried beans. They’re usually more cost-effective, you get wayyyy more and they are so so soooo much more flavorful when you cook them yourself! Adding bay leaves, garlic, herbs or other aromatics as you cook the dry beans imparts so much more flavor than trying to do something with pre-cooked beans. They take on tons of yumminess as they absorb water and tastiness while cooking. Plus you can control the texture if you want creamy, soft beans or firmer beans with a bite.
Anyway, not too sure about your area specifically, but dried beans are usually much much cheaper. Depends on where/what kind, but you can usually get 1 kilo for around 2 -3 $ where I live. Best of luck!
Made this with two cans white beans and one can pinto beans. Also added some carrots. Really easy and good.
This is such a quick, easy, delicious soup! I don’t have a blender so instead I’ve mashed by spoon a portion of the beans and it still turns out wonderfully! I highly recommend adding some fresh spinach in at the end. Thanks, Beth!