Whoever discovered beans gets a big fat medal of appreciation from yours truly. They’re just incredible. Incredible and cheap. And so is this Slow Cooker White Bean Soup. This soup is thick, warm, comforting, and flavorful… and cost me LESS THAN FIVE DOLLARS FOR THE WHOLE POT. That, my friend, is the magic of beans.
This post contains some affiliate links, which means that we make a small commission off items you purchase at no additional cost to you.
What Kind of White Beans Should I Use?
I suggest using navy beans first, because they are creamy and break down easily when cooked, which will give you this nice thick texture in the finished soup. If navy beans are not available, my second choice would be great northern beans. DO NOT use cannellini beans, which are part of the kidney bean family, and require a heavy boil to break down a natural substance called Phytohaemagglutinin, which is a gastrointestinal toxin. The slow cooker does not get the soup hot enough for long enough to break down the toxins in those beans.
Do I Need to Soak the Beans?
Nope! This recipe does not require pre-soaking the beans. Some people claim that soaking beans then discarding the soaking water can reduce flatulence, but I, personally, find no difference. If you prefer to pre-soak your beans, you will need to add less water to this recipe and will probably need less cooking time. I have not tested that method, so I do not have a specific amount of water or cooking time to suggest.
Can I Use Broth in Place of Water?
This awesome Slow Cooker White Bean Soup uses a medley of spices, herbs, and vegetables to make its own flavorful broth right in the slow cooker – no Better Than Bouillon soup base this time around, folks. Of course you always have the option to use broth in place of water if you wish, just be aware that you probably won’t need to add salt at the end of the recipe, as directed below.
Can I Add Meat?
Sure, if you prefer meat in your soup I would suggest adding a ham hock or a smoked turkey leg to the slow cooker with your soup as it cooks. They will provide a wonderfully smoky flavor and will reduce the amount of salt you’ll need to add at the end.
Is This Soup Freezer Friendly?
Yes! This Slow Cooker White Bean Soup freezer beautifully. Make sure to divide it into single portions and chill it in the refrigerator first, then transfer to the freezer once cold. I like to freeze my soups in reusable Ziploc containers, but freezer bags also work great. To reheat either use the defrost function on the microwave, or transfer to a soup pot and reheat over low, stirring often, until heated through.
Love white bean soup? Check out my Chunky Ham and Bean Soup or Easy Rosemary Garlic White Bean Soup.
Slow Cooker White Bean Soup
Servings 6 about 1.5 cups eachIngredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.32)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.11)
- 4 carrots (about 1/2 lb.) ($0.30)
- 4 ribs celery ($0.46)
- 1 lb. dry navy beans* ($1.25)
- 1 bay leaf ($0.30)
- 1 tsp dried rosemary ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika ($0.05)
- Freshly cracked black pepper (15-20 cranks of a pepper mill) ($0.05)
- 6 cups water ($0.00)
- 2 tsp salt, or to taste ($0.05)
Instructions
- Mince the garlic, dice the onion, slice the celery, and peel and slice the carrots. Add the olive oil, garlic, onion, celery, and carrots to a large (5qt or larger) slow cooker.
- Give the beans a quick rinse in a colander and then add them to the slow cooker, along with the bay leaf, rosemary, thyme, paprika, and some freshly cracked pepper.
- Add six cups of water to the slow cooker and stir to combine the ingredients. Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 8-9 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.
- After 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high, stir the soup and begin to mash the beans against the side of the slow cooker to thicken the soup. Once the soup is thickened to your liking, start adding salt to taste. Begin with 1/2 tsp and add more until the soup tastes flavorful to you. I used about 2 tsp total.
- Serve the soup hot with crackers or crusty bread for dipping.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Crockpot White Bean Soup – Step by Step Photos
Dice one yellow onion, four ribs of celery, and peel and slice 1/2 lb. carrots (about 4 carrots). Mince 4 cloves of garlic. Add the onion, celery, carrot, garlic and 2 Tbsp olive oil to a slow cooker (5 qt. or larger).
You’ll need one pound of dry navy beans or great northern beans. Again, DO NOT use cannellini beans, which are part of the kidney bean family, and require a heavy boil to break down a natural substance called Phytohaemagglutinin, which is a gastrointestinal toxin. The slow cooker does not get the soup hot enough for long enough to break down the toxins in those beans.
Briefly rinse the beans in a colander, then add them to the slow cooker along with 1 bay leaf, 1 tsp dried rosemary, 1/2 tsp dried thyme, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, some freshly cracked pepper, and six cups of water.
Briefly stir the contents of the slow cooker to make sure all the flavors are distributed, then place a lid on top and cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 8-9 hours.
After cooking on high for 4-5 hours or low for 8-9 hours it will look a little something like this. All the vegetables will have floated up to the top and the beans will have absorbed most of the water. Test a bean to make sure they are very soft. If they’re not yet soft, cook for one hour more (they should definitely be soft by this point, unless your beans are very old. Old beans sometimes do not soften no matter how long they are cooked).
Stir the soup and smash the beans against the side of the pot, which will thicken the soup (or you can use an immersion blender). The soup at this point does not contain ANY salt, so now it’s time to add salt so you can really taste all the different flavors. Begin adding salt, starting with 1/2 tsp and adding more until the soup is flavorful. I added 2 tsp total.
Serve hot with some crusty bread for dipping!
Made soup according to recipie, only I added a ham hock to the mixture in the beginnning. Removed the bone at the end, keeping the meat, then used a hand blender to blend the soup and meat up until it was a thick consistancy but still with some texture. Will make again, possibly without the ham hock as it added alot of salt.
Just finished a bowl of this, watching the snow fall, and I couldn’t be happier. It is really good. I was going to cook this yesterday and had everything already in the crockpot when my electricity went out. With not enough time left to cook it that day, I just put the entire crock outside in my unheated porch and brought it back inside this morning, plugged it in and voila! So….the beans soaked overnight with everything else in there, and it could not be more tasty. Thanks for a keeper!
One more question from this very old novice cooker. What is cracked pepper. I could not find it in my local grocery store.
I meant to say freshly cracked pepper, as in use a pepper mill. It’s WAY more flavorful than black pepper that you purchase already ground up. A lot of brands make small disposable pepper mills now and you can buy them in the spice aisle (usually $2-$3 and they last quite a while). I would highly suggest getting one – it changed my cooking forever! :)
Thank you, again, for the info. I did use regular pepper and it worked. Was not quite sure how much to use, but came out okay. I have never made bean soup before. This was quite easy and super delicious. So glad I found this web site. Thank you for such prompt responses.
Hi quick question, which may be a dumb one, but I don’t cook from scratch much. Is the dried thyme the little leaves or the powder? Never made bean soup before, this looks easy enough.
I use the little leaves. :)
Thank you
Just put this recipe on for tonight. Took me about 15 minutes including all of the chopping. What a breeze for a delish, savory and WARM veggie meal for my family. Thank you, Beth! Now which recipe to try out next… :-)
This was great. Followed all your instructions but I added a little more water to make it slightly soupier. Delicious. Entire family loved it. And that says a lot.
My aunt gave me a hambone and the juices left over from cooking our Thanksgiving ham– would I just substitute the ham stock in for the equivalent amount of water in this recipe?
Yes, I think that would work wonderfully!
The first time we made this a few weeks ago, my husband mashed the beans too much and then instead of turning the crockpot off or to warm, he left it on high for three more hours. The result bean mash. It was good but not soup like at all. I made it again this week, lightly mashed the beans and put it on warm after 8 hours and it turned out much better. A nice hearty soup on a cold rainy day.
Excellent soup! Didn’t soak the beans, just threw everything in for an economical, super easy, and tasty soup. Served with a nice cheesy bread for at least two nights of meals for the two of us. Thanks Beth!
DELICIOUS! I tried this and ended up with the same problem as some where the beans didn’t break down…well, what I did to fix it was I actually started blending it, slightly to the consistency I wanted it, then I added it to stove top for about an hour ad the beans broke down to a mushy state and it was delicious.
I personally liked your flavors but my kids weren’t a big fan so I added Cajun seasoning to it and they gobbled it up! I will be adding this to my recipe book!
I’m making this now. I soaked the beans overnight as a precaution and used filtered water (I’m in Utah with notoriously high mineral contents in the water), but with only a few hours left to go the beans are still pretty tough. I turned the slow cooker up to high and I’m hoping that will cook them down some more by dinner time. Still, I’m quite excited, because this smells fantastic.
I hope it works!!
It did. After two more hours on high I had very tender beans. Great recipe!
Yum! Put the Bean Soup together this morning & it was all done when I got home this afternoon. I doubled the Rosemary & the Thyme. I added a couple Tablespoons of tomato paste after cooking too. Sprinkled a tablespoon of crumbled bacon on top of my bowl of soup and enjoyed with cornbread. Very easy & delicious.
The soup looks awesome but why do they list stuff so cheap I don’t know any store you can go buy 2 tsp Of olive oil 15 cracks of old mill pepper? if some one know please let me know should be called bug your neighbor soup
I calculate the portion of the ingredients used, not how much is purchase. The remaining portions are used in other recipes where the price is accounted for. It’s a little confusing at first, but this is how food service operations calculates their costs. Here is a tutorial on how I calculate the costs of the recipes and here is a write up about how the prices listed are just for example purposes. I hope that helps! :)
Is it really 1 pound of dry beans?? I’ve only really ever used 1 cup of dry beans in soup recipes. But I guess this would be a thick soup.
Yep, it’s really one pound (which is about 2 cups). :)
ugh…Hope you like rosemary because there was too much rosemary flavor in this. It might be good with HALF the rosemary and thyme in it. We followed the recipe exactly. Looked beautiful (exactly like the photo) but tasted awful!