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 was soooo good and easy! Very flavorful and rich even without any add-ins but I look forward to experimenting with some additions next time. The rosemary makes this a perfect wintery/cold day soup.
Love this recipe! It’s so quick and filling. Sometimes I’ll add a small splash of lemon juice to my bowl. Thanks for this! :)
Very easy and delicious! I love lemon, so added a splash of that in my bowl and it’s SUPERB. I like the other comments about adding veggies and sausage, so I will try that in future iterations. I really wanted something warm and with white beans (odd want, but…) – so glad I found this recipe!
Genius!! Will defy make this THIS week. Thank u:)
Could i use water instead of broth to cut down sodium? Also I’m out of broth.
Well, you would be missing quite a bit of flavor if you do that, unfortunately. A better way to cut down on the sodium would be to use low or no-sodium beans and a low-sodium broth.
I definitely would go the low sodium beans & broth route! I made this today and it’s delicious but the canned beans are definitely a bit too salty for my tatste!!
I have been cooking for 50 years but have never really made a white bean soup, but other kinds, like mixed bean soup, which I always thought a little bland. Well, this soup is fabulous, lots of layers of flavor in a short time. Made it for lunch today and will have with dinner tonight. My personal add in was a pinch of herbs de provence added with the other herbs. A truly excellent soup!
Delicious! Added some ham that needed to be used, a small yellow onion, 2 carrots and 2 ribs of celery. Had it for lunch and then again a few hours later for dinner
Amazing! It’s surprisingly rich and creamy. I added in diced onion and served with buttered toast. Can’t wait to eat the leftovers!
I buy no salt added canned beans snd low sodium broth.
This is SO easy and SO good! I waited until the very end to salt mine (after it simmered for 15 minutes). I followed it all except for I had 3 small tomatoes going bad on my counter so I blended them with the first can of beans! Gave it a little pink tomato based…Came out so darn good! Topped with more fresh pepper and some Parmesan cheese and so good! Will double the recipe next time for sure!
I love this soup! The lemon juice is an absolute must, in my opinion–the added brightness takes this soup to a 10/10. My husband was initially dubious about this recipe but had to eat his words (and more soup) because he loves it.
We have made this several times and have customized it to our family preferences.
I saute’ a cup each of chopped carrots, celery, and onion. I also include 1 lb. of browned turkey or turkey sausage.
Instead of pureeing a whole can of beans I just hit it with the immersion blender or potato masher a few times. My husband and 1 year old love this soup (the 3 year old won’t eat it, but that’s more about him than the soup haha).
Thank you for posting the potato masher comment! I’m visiting a family member and was contemplating if I needed to buy an immersion blender to make this soup – you just saved me, yay! I love this soup, and now I can old school it with confidence.
This was extremely delicious!!! So so so easy too! I ended up adding some garlic powder near the end and my girlfriend thought it needed a bit more salt but !! 5/5 absolutely! Would recommend stirring it very well before serving though because I ended up with all the liquid in the first 2 bowls and then the rest was mostly wet beans haha. I’m looking forward to trying your smoky black bean soup as it looks similar with the blending of the beans
Yikes! Where is all of that sodium coming from?? I love your recipes, but this is super unhealthy. How could we change that?
Canned beans and broth are two items that tend to be higher in sodium. That being said, I can’t stress enough that the nutrition facts listed are general estimates only and may not be accurate. I suggest looking at the sodium content of the beans and vegetable broth you are personally using to calculate the sodium content for a more accurate representation. For more information on how we calculate nutrition data and why it is not exact, please read our nutrition disclaimer.
This was very good. I minced up carrots, an onion, & celery to sauté with the garlic. Next time I’ll probably add a bit of salted ham for flavor. This is a very good recipe.
This might be my all-time favorite Budget Bytes recipe. So hearty, so filling, and sooooo delicious. I can just eat bowl after bowl of this! I don’t know how many times I’ve made this, and it always comes out perfect. I generally like to add a large carrot (or two medium-to-small carrots) for some texture contrast, but I’ve also made it as-is plenty of times. I always freeze a portion or two for some future night when I’m super hungry but I have absolutely zero energy for *anything*. It’s a total lifesaver, and always makes me feel better.
Yup, this is the tastiest of the easiest soup recipes I have tried. I didn’t have any thyme, and it still came out fabulously. I sautéed some sweet yellow onion first, then added the garlic for a minute. LOVE THIS RECIPE! I just made it about 20 minutes ago and have already shared it with two friends. Thank you for making soup so easy!!
This looks a lovely recipe except that the sodium is way too high even for people not watching their salt intake…well more than 1/2 daily intake in one dish of the day.
Cook your beans from scratch to make this work for many people.
Or just rinse the can of beans first and use low sodium broth.. Removes much of the salt.
Amazing! It’s surprisingly rich and creamy. I added in diced onion and served with buttered toast. Can’t wait to eat the leftovers!