First place Whole Foods contest winner!! This white bean vegetable soup is loaded with vegetables and is hearty enough to stand on its own as a main dinner dish with only a crust of bread on the side.
There's a bit of prep work to this soup, but I've included shortcuts in the post for you.
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Want to make this recipe perfectly the first time? I want to help with that. So, check out this Table of Contents to see which sections of this post will help you the most.
Jump to:
- โค๏ธ Why you'll love this vegetable bean soup
- ๐ง Ingredients + Notes
- ๐ถ What is harissa?
- ๐ช Recommended Equipment
- ๐ Instructions Overview
- โฐ Meal Prep Tips to Simplify and Save Time
- ๐ฉโ๐ณ Vegetable Prepping Tips
- ๐ฆ What's the best way to store leftovers?
- ๐ฅฌ Make it a vegan white bean soup
- ๐ฝ Side Dish Ideas
- ๐ More Hearty Soups
- White Bean Vegetable Soup
Bean soups with vegetables are a favorite of mine all year long, but especially during soup season, when the weather turns chilly. That's when I pull out a large soup pot to make a batch (or two) of hot soup to warm my family up from the inside out. If it's soup weather where you are, check out these 10 Cozy Vegetarian Soups Perfect for Fall. They're favorites of mine, and of our readers!
This bean soup recipe was inspired by a contest Whole Foods was running a few years ago. I don't remember the exact challenge, but it involved, well, whole foods. And what better way to feature them than in a hearty soup featuring the fall harvest.
If you want a homemade vegetable soup that's less filling with less veggie prep this is a great soup that's still hearty enough for lunch and a light dinner.
❤️ Why you'll love this vegetable bean soup
- It's hearty, filling and absolutely delicious.
- Flexible for vegetarians, vegans and meat eaters.
- Warms you up on a chilly night.
- Great way to get kids to eat more veggies!
- The only thing you need is some crusty bread to go with it, slathered with butter.
- Homemade soup is a perfect way to use up odds and ends of onions, carrots and celery in your refrigerator.
- Perfect for a crowd.
🧅 Ingredients + Notes
The secret to faster and easier meals often lies in the ingredients. For example, store-bought items and ingredients you make ahead and store in the refrigerator (or freezer) can turn a 60-minute recipe into a 30-minutes meal or less.
For the all of the ingredients, measurements and directions for this white bean soup recipe, go to the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post.
- Leek
- Yellow onion
- Carrots
- Celery
- Butternut squash
- Serrano pepper
- Garlic - use either fresh garlic or garlic paste from Gourmet Garden, found in the produce department with the fresh herbs.
- Dried herbs - thyme and oregano
- Vegetable broth - in a carton or Better Than Bouillon
- Parmesan cheese rind
- Cooked white beans - Either use cans of beans or use dry beans you're cooked in advance. Navy white beans, cannellini beans and great northern beans are all good choices.
- Cooked chicken
- Harissa - make it yourself or purchase it
- Baby spinach - I use pre-washed baby fresh spinach in large cartons, available in most grocery stores.
- Canned whole tomatoes
- Parmesan cheese
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links to products and foods I use in my kitchen. This means that at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. To view my entire storefront of recommended kitchen tools and equipment, check out my shop on Amazon.
🌶 What is harissa?
The harissa in this recipe brings a rich flavor, and just a hint of heat to this soup. It's what makes this soup special. So don't ignore this ingredient.
Harissa is a spicy, aromatic chile paste popular in Middle Eastern and North African dishes. If you're interested in making your own, here's how to make harissa in your own kitchen (it makes a fabulous holiday gift), or purchase it in most markets in the ethnic foods aisles. I buy the spicy version of Mina Harissa, but they also have a mild version.
There's range of heat in purchased harissa, so my best recommendation is to start with half of what's called for in this recipe, and then add more to your own taste.
🔪 Recommended Equipment
- Chef's knife
- Large heavy bottomed Dutch oven such as Le Creuset
- Wooden spoon
- Immersion blender
📝 Instructions Overview
Detailed instructions for making this white bean vegetable soup are in the recipe card below, but here's an overview!
Step 1
Prep. Prep the leek, onion, carrots, celery, butternut squash and Serrano pepper.
Step 2
Sauté. Warm a little olive oil in a large pot over medium heat, and dump all the prepped vegetables into it. Toss with a large wooden spoon, and sauté until just starting to soften.
Add the garlic, dried herbs, salt and pepper. Cook for a couple minutes until fragrant.
Step 3
Make it a soup. Add the broth, a chunk of Parmesan rind, white beans, chicken, harissa, spinach and tomatoes. Simmer for 10 minutes to mingle the flavors.
Step 4
Serve. Serve piping hot in large bowls and top with a shaving of Parmesan cheese.
⏰ Meal Prep Tips to Simplify and Save Time
Most of the time in making this amazing soup is spent with meal prep.
- If your market has it, purchase onion and celery already diced.
- Many markets sell butternut squash already peeled and diced. You may need to dice it smaller into ยพ" pieces, but it would still save you from peeling the squash.
- I cook beans from dried beans when I have time, but I often use canned beans for convenience purposes. And there is a wide variety of canned white beans to choose from.
👩🍳 Vegetable Prepping Tips
If you don't typically cut up some of the veggies called for in this recipe, here are some vegetable prep tips I learned in culinary school that will help you!
Prepping leeks
- Leeks grow in sandy soil, so they need more of a cleaning than most vegetables you bring into the kitchen.
- Slice off the dark green leafy part of the leeks, and the roots. Then slice the bulb in half lengthwise. Hold each bulb half under the water, while feathering out the leaves. There will likely be sandy mud in between most of the leaves.
Prepping butternut squash
- Slice off the top and bottom of the squash. If the skin is too tough to easily cut through, pop the squash in the microwave oven for 3 - 5 minutes (depending on the size of the squash), and try again. Since the microwave time is so short, there's no need to puncture the squash in advance.
- Slice the butternut in half, lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds and pulp with a spoon. Any spoon works, but a grapefruit spoon works really well with the stringy pulp.
- Peel the squash using a vegetable peeler (I prefer a Y-shaped peeler, pictured below). Start at either the top or bottom edge, and pull the peeler towards you. If you don't have a vegetable peeler, use a sharp chef's knife. A knife doesn't work quite as well because of the hourglass shape of the squash.
- The easiest way to cut the squash into small cubes, is to start at the neck of the squash, and slice it across the width into ยพ" thick slabs. Next, slice it up into cubes. The dice won't be consistent because of the shape of the squash and its scooped out bowl.
Prepping Serrano pepper
- The heat in these spicy peppers is in the pith and seeds. Using a chef's knife, slice off the stem first, and then slice in half, lengthwise.
- Angle the knife, and slide it up the length of the pepper to remove the pith and seeds.
- Next, slice into thin, long lengths, and finally across them to mince them.
Using canned tomatoes
- Purchase canned tomatoes that are peeled and left whole in a sauce. San Marzano tomatoes are the best quality, but there are others that may be less expensive.
- Remove four of the peeled tomatoes from the sauce using a fork, and coarsely quarter them. If the tomatoes are large, cut them into smaller bite-size chunks.
- Add the sliced tomatoes and their juices to the soup.
📦 What's the best way to store leftovers?
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. I save pasta sauce jars, and pour the soup in these.
- Freeze this bean soup in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months.
🥬 Make it a vegan white bean soup
This soup is designed to be a plant-based soup, but I often add the rind of a wedge of Parmesan cheese to the soup as it cooks. This adds some salty umami to the soup. It's very easy to eliminate the rind, and any cheese you add on top when serving. Here are some ideas:
- Use plant-based Parmesan style cheese,
- Substitute nutritional yeast, or
- Eliminate the cheese altogether.
🍽 Side Dish Ideas
This is a very hearty soup, and needs little else. But bread is always a great partner of soups.
- Freshly baked bread is always a hit. If you're interested in making a yeasted bread, these Parmesan and Garlic Rolls are irresistible, as is this Aglio e Olio Pizza Bread.
- Or whip up a batch of Easy Buttermilk Cornbread or my Mexican cornbread.
📇 More Hearty Soups
Vegetable / Chicken and Rice Peasant Soup (this is another excellent soup with optional chicken for the meat-eaters),
Instant Pot Curried Lentil Soup,
Moroccan Chickpea Stew with Charred Eggplant and Tomatoes (based on one of my Ottolenghi favorites),
Summer Vegetable Soup with Farro,
and this Cauliflower and White Bean Soup.
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White Bean Vegetable Soup
Equipment
- Wooden spoon
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large leek sliced (about 1 ยพ cups)
- 1 medium onion finely chopped (about 2 cups)
- ยฝ cup diced carrots
- 2 cups diced celery
- 2 cups butternut squash cubes about ยพ" square
- 1 Serrano pepper minced (1 ยฝ - 2 tablespoons)
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt or 1 teaspoon table salt
- ยฝ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- 1 chunk Parmesan cheese rind
- 2 15-ounce cans of cannellini beans (or navy beans, great northern beans, or white kidney beans) (about 3 cups cooked beans)
- 3 - 4 tablespoons harissa chile paste purchase it, or use ยฝ teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
- ยฝ carton pre-washed baby spinach
- 4 canned whole tomatoes, quartered without the sauce that's in the can
Instructions
- Prep. Prep the leek, onion, carrots, celery, butternut squash and Serrano pepper. Put in a large bowl. Look at the notes for tips!
- Sauté. Warm up a little olive oil in a large Dutch oven, such as a Le Creuset, over medium-high heat. Dump all the prepped vegetables into it all at once (the leek, onion, carrots, celery, butternut squash and Serrano pepper). Toss with a large wooden spoon to coat with the olive oil. Sauté until just starting to soften, about 10 minutes. Tip: Stir and toss only every couple of minutes so that a brown coating develops on the bottom of the pot. This is called the fond, and contributes additional savory flavor to the soup. Add the garlic, dried herbs, salt and pepper. Cook for another 5 minutes until fragrant.
- Make it a soup. Add the broth, the Parmesan rind for another savory flavor infusion, and cooked white beans. Simmer for 5 - 10 minutes to warm the beans, and then thicken the soup by using an immersion blender for about 15 seconds.Tip: If you don't have an immersion blender, remove 2 cups of soup and pour it into a blender to purée. Then pour it back into the soup. Stir in the harissa (to taste) or red pepper flakes, spinach and tomatoes. Simmer for 10 minutes to mingle the flavors.Tip: Purchased harissa has a range of spiciness. Start with half of what the recipe calls for, and then add more to your own taste.
- Serve. Serve piping hot in large bowls, topped with a couple shavings of Parmesan cheese, with a hunk of bread slathered with butter.
Choc Chip Uru
I'm so happy for your harvest results, fantastic ๐
This soup is simply stunning!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks CCU. Unfortunately these beauties didn't come from any garden I've ever had ๐ Thank goodness for farmer's markets...
apuginthekitchen
Breathtakingly beautiful and a wonderful hearty soup, Your photo is as good if not better than any from the professionals. Just beautiful and that soup sounds amazing.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Oh Suzanne, thanks so much. I want to get a wooden panel made and paint it, but just haven't run across any wood. It's what I really would like to use as a background, but I think I'll just have to go to home depot and buy some wood. The soup however, I must admit, is really good. I started making it last year and finally perfected it this past week ๐
Lyn @LovelyPantry
Look at all those beautiful ingredients! This is a wonderful soup, Susan!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks so much Lyn!!! I made cornbread today and it didn't work out so great. I should have made yours!! It looks so good ๐
mjskit
This is definitely a fall harvest soup! WOW! What a hearty bowl of deliciousness and so healthy!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks so much MJ! We just had another bowl of it for dinner tonight ๐
Kristi Rimkus
What a beautifully hearty soup! I love all the veggies. I have a bottle of harissa in the frig that I forget to use all the time. You've inspired me to make better use of it.
Terra
I love when it is soup season, there are so many gorgeous recipes to enjoy! Your recipe sounds wonderful, love your addition of harissa, sounds fantastic! Hugs, Terra
Dorothy Reinhold
I LOVE soup season. This looks like fall in a bowl. So gooooood!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Soup season is the BEST!! Thanks so much!!
Toni
It looks so comforting!! Yum!
Julie
I just love how comforting this soup is to eat and how easy it was to make! My kind of comfort food!
Kathleen
My husband adores veggie soups and yours did not disappoint! The serrano pepper took it to the next level!