Healthy soup recipes: creamy Tuscan white bean soup in one pot, 35 minutes

Nov 8

3 min read

Updated: 2 hours ago

Bowl of creamy Tuscan white bean soup with spinach, olive oil drizzle and black pepper

One pot, 35 minutes, creamy without cream

The silkiness in this soup comes from blending half the beans, not from cream. It takes thirty seconds with an immersion blender and gives you a base thick enough to coat a spoon, with the other half of the beans left whole for texture. Garlic, rosemary and a parmesan rind make it taste like it simmered for hours.

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Why this one works

Blending half and leaving half whole is the trick, and it costs you nothing but thirty seconds.
A parmesan rind dropped in the pot is the cheapest flavour upgrade in cooking. Save them in the freezer.
Naturally vegetarian, high in fiber, and it costs a few dollars to make a whole pot.

At a glance

Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 5 bowls
Protein: 17g per serving
Calories: 358 per serving

Ingredients

Base

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3 tbsp olive oil, plus more to finish
1 yellow onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbsp tomato paste

The pot

3 cans (15 oz each) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
5 cups vegetable broth
1 parmesan rind, optional but recommended
1 bay leaf
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
4 packed cups baby spinach or chopped kale
1 tbsp lemon juice

To serve

Grated Parmesan
Coarse black pepper
Toasted sourdough

Instructions

Build the soffritto. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium. Add the onion, carrot and celery with a pinch of salt and cook 8 minutes, until everything is soft and the onion is translucent. This slow start is where the sweetness comes from — do not rush it.
Add garlic and aromatics. Stir in the garlic, rosemary and red pepper flakes and cook 1 minute until fragrant.
Darken the tomato paste. Add the tomato paste and cook it against the bottom of the pot for 2 minutes, stirring, until it turns a deep brick red. This small step adds a savoury depth that is hard to place and impossible to skip.
Simmer. Add the beans, broth, parmesan rind, bay leaf and salt. Bring to a boil, then drop to a simmer and cook 15 minutes uncovered.
Blend half the pot. Remove the bay leaf and the rind. Blend roughly half the soup directly in the pot with an immersion blender, moving it around in short bursts — you want it creamy but still full of whole beans and visible vegetables.
Greens and acid. Stir in the spinach and let it wilt, about 2 minutes. Add the lemon juice, then taste carefully for salt. A bean soup almost always needs more salt and more acid than feels right.
Serve. Ladle into bowls, drizzle generously with olive oil, and finish with Parmesan and plenty of coarse black pepper. Toasted sourdough on the side.

Notes and swaps

Vegan: skip the parmesan rind and cheese, and add 1 tsp white miso with the broth for the same savoury backbone.
It thickens overnight. Loosen with broth when reheating.
Freezes well for 3 months, which makes it worth doubling.