White Bean Soup

White Bean Soup is hearty, rich, and surprisingly full of flavor for such simple ingredients. Simmered with garlic, herbs, and savory seasonings, it creates a thick and satisfying broth that’s both cozy and nourishing. Served with warm crusty bread, it’s the perfect comforting meal for any night of the week.

Love More Soup Recipes? Try My Chicken Pot Pie Soup or this Mexican Street Corn Soup next.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Made with simple, everyday ingredients, this white bean soup packs in big, comforting flavor without being heavy. It’s nourishing yet still feels indulgent, with creamy beans and tender vegetables simmered together in one pot. Easy to make ahead and perfect for meal prep, it’s the kind of cozy dish everyone will want seconds of.

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Ingredient List

The Foundation:

• 3 cans (15 ounces each) white beans, drained and rinsed (navy, cannellini, Great Northern, or similar)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (or avocado oil, or butter)
• 1 large onion, chopped (yellow, white, shallots, or leeks)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (or garlic paste, frozen garlic, or garlic powder)

The Vegetable Stars:

• 3 large carrots, chopped (can swap with sweet potatoes or parsnips)
• 3 celery stalks, chopped (or substitute zucchini or green beans)

The Flavor Builders:

• 6 cups vegetable broth (low-sodium or homemade)
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)
• ½ teaspoon black pepper (plus more to taste)

The Finishing Touches:

• 5 ounces baby spinach (optional but highly recommended!)
• Grated Parmesan cheese (optional, for serving)

Last week I used dying zucchini and sad carrots. Worked perfectly.

Why These Ingredients Work

My kids call white beans “butter beans” because they get so creamy. They soak up flavors like crazy and basically turn into natural thickener. Way cheaper than buying those fancy cream soups at the store.

Onion, carrots, celery – that’s what every good soup starts with. My grandmother from Sicily called it something Italian that I can’t spell, but she said it makes cheap food taste expensive. She was right about most things.

Those little jars of dried herbs you bought and never use? This is their moment. Thyme smells like fancy restaurants, oregano tastes like good pizza. Together they make everything smell like someone who actually knows how to cook lives here.

Spinach is my mom trick. Kids see green leafy stuff and panic, but this disappears completely. They never know it’s there but I feel better about feeding them soup for dinner.

Essential Tools and Equipment

Big pot. That’s it. Mine’s this ancient Dutch oven from when I first moved out. Has scorch marks and everything but still works perfectly.

Sharp knife for chopping, wooden spoon for stirring, can opener, ladle. Basically what everyone already has in their kitchen.

Nothing fancy, nothing expensive, nothing that takes up counter space.

How To Make White Bean Soup

Step 1: Build Your Flavor Base

Heat up that olive oil in your big pot. Dump in the chopped onion. Let it cook until it goes from white to see-through and your kitchen starts smelling good. Takes about five minutes. Perfect time to open your cans and rinse beans.

Step 2: Add the Aromatics

Throw in garlic, carrots, celery, all those herbs and salt and pepper. Stir everything around for maybe two minutes until it smells incredible. This is when I usually call everyone to dinner because the smell drives them crazy.

Step 3: Bring It All Together

Pour in that broth, add the beans. Crank the heat up until everything starts bubbling like crazy, then turn it down so it just gently bubbles. Let it do its thing for fifteen minutes while you clean up your mess or help with homework or whatever.

Step 4: The Final Touch

Chuck in that spinach, stir it around until it disappears. Taste it, add more salt if it needs it. Done. Seriously, that’s it.

Everyone’s already hovering around the kitchen by now because it smells like comfort food heaven.

You Must Know

Cook those onions first. I tried skipping it once when I was running late. Big mistake. Those few minutes make everything taste like you actually tried instead of just opening cans.

Personal Secret: Taste it before serving. My store-bought broth is saltier than yours probably is. Start with less salt, you can always add more but you can’t take it back out.

This changed everything: mash some beans against the pot with your spoon while it’s simmering. Not all of them, just enough to make it thick and creamy looking. My sister-in-law thinks I add cream. I don’t correct her.

Pro Tips & Cooking Hacks

Save that parmesan rind from last week’s pasta night. Throw it in while everything cooks, fish it out before serving. Makes it taste like expensive Italian restaurant soup.

Squeeze lemon juice over each bowl before eating. Game changer. My husband was skeptical until he tried it.

Spinach goes from perfect to gross in about thirty seconds. Don’t walk away when you add it.

Those frozen vegetable mixes work great here. I buy the onion-carrot-celery one for lazy nights. Just cook it an extra minute since frozen vegetables are wetter.

Flavor Variations & Suggestions

Italian version: Add a can of crushed tomatoes and fresh basil if you have it. Tastes like vacation in Tuscany, except I’ve never been to Tuscany.

Meat version: Brown some Italian sausage first, then follow everything else. My teenagers prefer this one.

Spicy version: Red pepper flakes with the other seasonings. Start small unless you want to cry into your soup.

Protein boost: Leftover rotisserie chicken, thanksgiving turkey, whatever meat’s hanging around. Add it the last few minutes.

Completely plant-based: Skip cheese, maybe add some nutritional yeast if you’re into that stuff.

Make-Ahead Options

Make this whole thing three days ahead. Actually gets better sitting in the fridge overnight. All those flavors become best friends.

Sunday meal prep people – chop everything ahead of time. Then weeknight dinner takes fifteen minutes.

This freezes amazing. I portion it out in old yogurt containers and grab one when I’m too tired to think. Skip adding spinach if you’re freezing it – add fresh spinach when you reheat.

Recipe Notes & Baker’s Tips

This recipe forgives everything. Wrong vegetables? Fine. Different beans? Great. Forgot the herbs? Still good. I’ve never had a bad batch.

Navy beans break down more and make it thicker. Cannellini beans stay more whole and chunky. Great Northern beans are somewhere in the middle. All taste good.

Too thick? Add water. Too thin? Mash more beans. Seriously, it’s that easy.

Serving Suggestions

Good crusty bread for dipping. I buy those part-bake loaves from the grocery store and pretend I’m domestic. Works every time.

Parmesan on top is mandatory in this house. Good olive oil drizzled over makes everyone think you’re fancy.

Perfect for when someone’s sick, when it’s cold outside, when you need comfort food that won’t make you feel gross after.

My kids dunk grilled cheese in it. My husband adds hot sauce because he adds hot sauce to everything. I eat it standing over the stove straight from the ladle.

This soup fixes bad days. Makes your house smell like someone who has everything together lives there, even when you definitely don’t.

Hope your people love this as much as mine do. Let me know what weird vegetables you throw in – I’m always looking for new ideas.

How to Store Your White Bean Soup

Fridge keeps it good for four days. Gets thicker just sitting there – add water or more broth when you heat it up.

Freezer lasts months. I use whatever containers I have lying around. Perfect for grabbing when you’re too brain-dead to cook.

Heat it slow on the stove, stir it sometimes. Add liquid until it looks right. Don’t overthink it.

Allergy Information

Gluten-free: Yep, unless you eat it with regular bread.

Dairy-free: Don’t add cheese. Easy.

Vegan: Same thing – skip the cheese.

Nut-free: No nuts anywhere in this.

Questions I Get Asked A Lot

Can I put this soup in the Instant Pot?

Yeah but you still gotta cook the vegetables first – don’t skip that step or it’ll taste flat. Sauté mode for the onions and stuff, then add everything else except spinach. Manual high pressure 8 minutes, quick release. Stir in spinach after. Works great.

Can I use canned beans instead of dried beans?

That’s literally what this recipe calls for – canned beans! Way easier than soaking dried beans overnight and cooking them forever. Just drain and rinse them first to get rid of that weird canned taste.

Can I use dried herbs instead?

The recipe already uses dried herbs – thyme and oregano from those little jars. If you meant fresh herbs, use three times as much fresh as dried. So if it calls for 1 teaspoon dried, use 1 tablespoon fresh.

My soup’s too thick! Add more broth or water until it looks good to you. The beans keep soaking up liquid even after it’s done.

Slow cooker version? Cook the vegetables in a pan first – don’t skip this step. Then dump everything in the slow cooker. Low 6-8 hours, high 3-4 hours. Add spinach last ten minutes.

No vegetable broth? Chicken broth works fine. Those bouillon cubes work too but go easy on extra salt since they’re already salty.

💬 Made this soup? Tell me what happened! Did your family eat it? What did you change? I love hearing everyone’s versions.