This vegan white bean soup of flageolet beans can be made with any white bean - Flageolet, Navy, cannellini or Great Northern beans. The beans are simmered with tomatoes, sage and thyme for a hearty, flavorful meal.
Instructions below are for both the stove top and Instant Pot.
Jump to:
- 🥣 Simplify Life with Soups
- 🫘 Bean Soups
- 🤷♀️ What are Flageolet Beans?
- ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- 🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes
- 🔪 Recommended Equipment
- ⏰ Tips to Simplify and Save Time
- 👩🍳 Preparation Tips
- 🥩 For the Meat Eaters at the Table
- 🍽 Side Dish Ideas
- White Bean Soup with Flageolet Beans, Tomatoes and Sage (Instant Pot)
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- White Bean Soup with Flageolet Beans, Tomatoes and Sage (Stove Top)
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🥣 Simplify Life with Soups
My life-long challenge is how to simplify my life. I stuff it full of activities and plans, like a starving person at an all-you-can-eat-cafeteria, heaping multiple dishes on her tray.
Join a book club? Count me in. Work out four times a week with an exercise buddy? Sure. Cantonese classes, write a food column, and fly to Russia to meet Putin? Absolutely.
I am woman. Hear me roar. Although I might pass on the whole meeting Putin thing.
One thing I've done to simplify life is to make more soups. They're easy, filling, a great opportunity for vegetables, grains and legumes, and can be made ahead without a lot of fuss.
🫘 Bean Soups
Bean soups are meal-worthy. They're hearty enough to fill you up, and thanks to the fiber, they keep you feeling filled longer than simple broth soups. And they offer a ton of variety.
Many bean soups focus just on just one bean. For example, lentil soups are popular, and I've made lots of chickpea soups and stews like this Charred Eggplant and Chickpea Stew from an Ottolenghi cookbook that I treasure. Chili is a form of soup, and they often have black beans or kidney beans in them.
And some bean soups feature a LOT of different beans.
White bean soups are the most flexible bean soups, IMO, as white beans go with just about any vegetable and seasoning. This gives white beans soups great range from White Bean Soup with Cauliflower and my Award-Winning Vegetable Soup with White Beans (first place prize in a contest run by Whole Foods) to this Smoky Kale and White Bean Soup.
Growing up on Campbell's Soups, my favorite was always their Bean with Bacon Soup, and I've tried to duplicate it many times.
This Tuscan Bean Soup comes kind of close to it. Frankly, I love any Tuscan bean soup, but it didn't remind me of childhood favorite. After more experimenting, this White Bean Soup with Flageolet Beans and Tomatoes is just about perfect.
There's no bacon, of course, in my version. 🌱
🤷♀️ What are Flageolet Beans?
Flageolet (pronounced fla-zho-LAY) beans are light green in color, and very popular in French cuisine. As a note, even though they're a pale green, they cook up tan in color. Their flavor is mild, and they cook up creamy without being mushy, making them the perfect white bean (IMO).
They're wonderful in soups like this one, and also the bean of choice for a simple bean dish drizzled with olive oil and dusting of rosemary.
As a note: they're more expensive than other white beans, but food lovers consider them the caviar of beans, and worth every penny. I'm in that camp.
❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- There's only 10 minutes of prep!
- A hearty soup, this soup is perfect for both lunch and dinner.
- Make it ahead and keep in the refrigerator or freeze.
- Besides olive oil, salt and pepper, you only need 6 ingredients to make this soup.
- You can make it on the stove top or Instant Pot (or other electric pressure cooker).
🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes
- Flageolet beans - dried, or any other white bean, such as Navy, Great Northern or Cannellini beans.
- Yellow onion
- Dried herbs - I use sage and thyme, but rosemary is another great herb for this soup.
- Vegetable broth
- Plum tomatoes - in summer, I use fresh tomatoes. Otherwise, I use canned whole, peeled San Marzano tomatoes (shown in the above photo).
- Balsamic vinegar
- Parmesan cheese (optional garnish)
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.
🔪 Recommended Equipment
⏰ Tips to Simplify and Save Time
I presoak the beans using a quick-soak method, which shortens the cook time, and typically make this soup in my Instant Pot.
Use canned pre-cooked white beans. It's difficult to find canned flageolet beans, so if you take this route, use any canned white bean.
👩🍳 Preparation Tips
If the dried sage is in large pieces, grind them down a bit using a spice grinder or mortar and pestle.
🥩 For the Meat Eaters at the Table
Add a smoked ham hock to this white bean soup while it cooks.
🍽 Side Dish Ideas
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.
If you want a vegetable side dish, carrots simmered in butter or roasted broccoli goes great with this soup.
A simple green salad is another great partner to this soup.
White Bean Soup with Flageolet Beans, Tomatoes and Sage (Instant Pot)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried flageolet beans
- 5 teaspoons Kosher salt divided
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- ⅔ cup yellow onion diced
- 1 teaspoon dried sage leaves crushed
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 6 plum tomatoes halved
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
- grated Parmesan cheese optional garnish
- minced parsley optional garnish
Instructions
- Presoak the beans in a brine solution of enough water to cover the beans by 2 inches of water and 1 tablespoon of kosher salt. Bring the beans and the brine to a simmer, and simmer for 10 minutes. Allow to cool for 1 hour. Drain and rinse.This step can be done ahead. Or the beans can be soaked overnight in the same brine solution, without bringing them to a simmer.
- Turn the Instant Pot to SAUTE, and select LOW temperature. Add the olive oil and diced onion. Sauté until softened, about 3 minutes. (They cook more quickly using an Instant Pot electric pressure cooker than on the stove top.)
- Add the dried sage and thyme and sauté for another minute, until fragrant. Turn off the pressure cooker.
- Pro tip: If the dried sage and / or thyme is in large dried pieces, grind them down a little with a spice grinder or mortar and pestle.
- Add the pre-soaked beans, and toss to coat. Add the broth, salt, halved plum tomatoes and black pepper.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot, or other electric pressure cooker, and lock it on the top of the pot. Cook on HIGH for 40 minutes, plus a 10 minutes NATURAL RELEASE.
- Using an immersion blender, whirl the soup several times until the consistency of the soup is to your preference.
- Stir in the balsamic vinegar to taste. Start with 1 teaspoon. I prefer it with 2 teaspoons.
- Serve garnished with Parmesan cheese and minced parsley. I use Whole Foods 365 brand of plant-based Parmesan style cheese.
Notes
Nutrition
White Bean Soup with Flageolet Beans, Tomatoes and Sage (Stove Top)
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried flageolet beans
- 5 teaspoons kosher salt divided
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- ⅔ cup yellow onion diced
- 1 teaspoon dried sage leaves
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 6 plum tomatoes fresh or canned
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
- grated Parmesan cheese optional garnish
- minced parsley optional parsley
Instructions
- Presoak the beans in a brine solution of enough water to cover the beans by 2 inches of water and 1 tablespoon of kosher salt. Bring the beans and the brine to a simmer, and simmer for 10 minutes. Allow to cool for 1 hour. Drain and rinse.This step can be done ahead. Or the beans can be soaked overnight in the same brine solution, without bringing them to a simmer.
- Add the olive oil to a Dutch oven, or other heavy bottomed pot, and warm it over medium heat. Add the diced onion. Sauté until softened, about 7 minutes.
- Add the dried sage and thyme and sauté for another minute, until fragrant.
- Pro tip: If the dried sage and / or thyme is in large dried pieces, grind them down a little with a spice grinder or mortar and pestle.
- Add the pre-soaked beans, and toss to coat. Add the broth, salt, halved plum tomatoes and black pepper. Simmer for 1 hour and 45 minutes, or until the beans are tender.
- Using an immersion blender, whirl the soup several times until the consistency of the soup is to your preference.
- Stir in the balsamic vinegar to taste. Start with 1 teaspoon. I prefer it with 2 teaspoons.
- Serve garnished with grated Parmesan cheese and minced parsley. I use Whole Foods 365 brand of plant-based Parmesan style cheese.
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