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.
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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.
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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!
Thanks for this! I actually did it in a pressure cooker in less than 1/2 hour! First, I did dried white northern beans for 15 mins to cook them, then I added the other stuff and pressure cooked for another 5 minutes. I think adding a few tbsps of vinegar and oregano and some veggie stock and tomato sauce makes it even nicer!
Can you turn the slow cooker on high and half the cooking time? Or do the beans need 8 hours on low?
I’ve done it on high for 4 hours and low for 8, so you could probably do a mix of the two.
Hi Beth, I love your recipes. Would love to make this with canned beans. Which would you recommend and for how long? I tried to look at the older posts, but could not bring up. Thanks. Annemarie
I think I would use navy beans and you’ll need to reduce the amount of water (since they’re already cooked). Maybe use 1/3 the water and add more if needed. You’ll only need to simmer the soup until the vegetables are soft, so it should be fairly quick. :)
This soup is in my regular meal rotation. It is tasty and super easy to make! I don’t like rosemary, so I leave that out and use great northern beans instead of navy. Thanks!
I have made this twice now in the last two weeks….love it! So easy and absolutely delicious! Well done!
I wanted to come back and say thanks. It seemed odd to me, but all 5 of my children loved this. They are 11, 9, 7, 4 and 2 – and they all ate it. Never saw that coming! Thank you!
We loved this recipe! Has a slightly similar flavor to that of the Greek giant beans my husband loves so much.
I made this today, and I really would have substituted veggie or chicken broth for the water in this recipe. I felt that this soup was VERY bland, which was surprising because all the other recipes are so delicious!
I subbed 4 cups veg broth and 2 cups water…tasty!
I’ve tried this recipe for lunch yesterday, and as I rarely have success if I don’t soak them over night, I decided to soak the beans, and later added only 4 cups of water. It was delicious :) Thank you for the recipe!
Can you use chicken broth or veggie broth instead of water? I plan to make this bean soup, but, have tried using dry beans before and they always seem undercooked. Any suggestions would be so helpful.
From what I understand, it’s a myth that salt makes the beans tough and it’s actually the pH of your water. If it’s too acidic or if you add ingredients that are too acidic, the beans won’t soften. So, it’s suggested that you add a little baking soda (not baking powder). Now, how much to add is another question. I’ve never tried it, so I’m really not sure. :P
No its not a myth adding salt to the beans before they are fully cook will make the beans hard. And yes you can use a vegetable broth instead of water it will only increase the flavor of your soup.
Just to add my experience, I cook dried beans in salted water all the time and have never had a problem with them cooking through.
The chapter on bean cookery in The Science of Good Cooking will clear up the myth. America’s Test Kitchen has done the science. Salt added at the start of cooking doesn’t cause any significant problems. Baking soda speeds cooking and yields a creamier product. I use 1/8 tsp to 1/4 tsp depending on batch size. I slow-cook garbanzos for hummus for 4 hours on low with salt and baking soda, which produces the most flavorful beans I’ve ever tasted. They develop a buttery richness, probably because baking soda reduces the temperature necessary for the maillard reaction.
I am a chemist with experience in cooking various types of starches for commercial products. I assure you, at the level of salt to water being used, the salt has essentially no effect on the beans softening. (The softening occurs by water first permeating the outer shell of the bean and then permeating and swelling the starch granules within the beans.) The reply about pH is indeed the correct one. The starch granules of the beans have a very difficult time with water uptake if the water is acidic. However, if the water is basic, the starch granules will swell with water water more rapidly, and if at pH10 or higher, will soften and burst at a lower temperature than pH 8 or lower. (But you definitely would not want to eat something that is pH 10 or higher!) The pH of a saturated solution of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is about 8.4. Very dilute solutions are about pH 7.5-8. So, baking soda would be useful only if you have water with pH of about 6.5 or less. Note that U. S. EPA standards require public drinking water to be in the pH range of 6.5-8.5.
Thank you for that wonderful info!! :D
The soup smelled great cooking but was a little bland. I had added a couple slices of bacon when I started the crock pot but ended up adding a couple tablespoons of beef bouillon towards the end to add some more flavor. I also checked the beans after 7 hours and they were still extremely hard so I turned the heat up to high. In total the soup took about 10.5 hours to finish. I think I may try it again but will have to make some major changes.
Try adding a little baking soda to your water, too. Apparently if your water is too acidic it will prevent the beans from softening up.
Made this today. It made the house smell wonderful! Since thyme isn’t my favourite spice I just added a small pinch. The beans were well cooked after 8 hours. I added about 2 1/2 tsp of salt and used the immersion blender to blend it up a bit. Perfect comfort food dish!
Hi, I only have black-eyed peas. Is it ok to use those as a substitute for the white beans?
I don’t see why those wouldn’t work. :)
I follow your blog not becaus I want to save $$$ ( but I do ) but that your recipes are really good.
This was a simple soup to make. It cooked up well and the beans got nice and soft . I thought it was a bit bland – but really bean soup is kind of bland. To counteract I drizzled with a bit of vinegar ( I used some Italian dressing at work ) and some hot pepper flakes. Sour cream mentioned below would also be good.
The smoked paprika I bought just for this recipe and it was great. Tomorrow before I pack my lunch I think I will also add a bit on my soup.
I also used herbes de provence – I find this to be great substitute for recipes that use rsemary and thyme – plus its one bottle.
Thanks great recipe and a really nice blog. Oh yes – I did add a bit of baking soda and I used my immersion blender to blen up a bit
Fantastic recipe. Because of our schedules, we have to cook recipes for 10 hours, not 8. Made this with 2 extra cups of water and 1/4 tsp of baking soda (we also have hard water and the standard ratio is 1/4 tsp per lb of beans).