Here’s a simple, hearty Smokey White Bean Soup you can make in your Instant Pot or on the stovetop using dry beans. Smoked paprika and optional Harissa paste give it a delicious flavor that will have you coming back for seconds.  Low in calories, high in fiber, this soup is vegan and gluten-free. Includes a Video!

Smoky Tomato White Bean Soup you can make in your Instant Pot or on the stovetop using dry beans. Smoked paprika and optional Harissa paste give it a delicious flavor that will have you coming back for seconds.  Low in calories, high in fiber, this soup is vegan and gluten-free.

Do not try to save the world or do anything grandiose. Instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there patiently, until the song that is your life falls into your own cupped hands and you recognize and greet it. Only then, will you know how to give yourself to this world so worthy of rescue.- Martha Postlewaite

Many of you have been asking for more recipes using up dry beans you have in your pantry. Here is a hearty, rustic Smoky Tomato & White Bean Soup recipe that is full of flavor and comes together very easily. You can make this in your instant pot or on your stovetop. This is one of those soups that you’ll actually look forward to the leftovers and the soup freezes well for later use.

What I love about this soup is how healthy and nourishing it is. It feels hearty and satisfying without being too heavy. The leftovers get even better as the flavors have a chance to meld.

Smoky Tomato White Bean Soup | 60-second video

white bean soup ingredients

Plus it always feels good to use up pantry ingredients- doesn’t it? I tend to overstuff our pantry, so I try to make at least one pantry meal a week.

Ingredients in White Bean Soup (see recipe card for details)

Today I’m using these lovely heirloom Cannelini Beans but please- use what you have- just make sure to soak them first.

 Cannellini Beans have a beautiful texture here.

What are Cannellini Beans?

Cannellini beans are a type of white bean is also known as white kidney beans or fazolia beans, often mistaken for Great Northern White Beans. They are quite large, and when cooked – are deliciously buttery and creamy, with a beautiful nutty flavor- while holding their shape and structure. Popular in Tuscany, they are lovely in soups and stews.

Now, like I said, you can use regular Great Northern White beans here- but wanted to introduce you to something new if unfamiliar. They are worth seeking out.

How to make White Bean Soup:

Start with sauteing the onions in a little olive oil.

saute the onion, celery and carrot in the olive oil

Add the celery and carrots and the thyme.

add the fresh thyme.

I am also using up a jar of roasted peppers. You could easily substitute a  fresh red bell pepper.

chop up and add the roasted peppers

Add these peppers along with the canned diced tomatoes to the pot.

stir it all together

Add the soaked beans. One pound of soaked white beans will roughly translate to 4 1/2 to 5 cups.  I love how big and creamy these cannellini beans are.

drain and add soaked white beans

Add the soaked, drained white beans along with the broth into the pot.

You could “beef this up” by adding a couple of whole boneless chicken thighs (and shred after) – or keep it totally meatless- I promise you really will not miss the meat here friends.

stir it all up

Today I’m just using water and the organic veggie bouillon which gives really good flavor to soups and stews.

add the bullion

Add the smoked paprika.add the smoked paprika

Stir in the salt, spices and bay leaves.

If cooking in the instant pot, set it to 12 minutes on high pressure. Let it naturally release for 5 minutes, before manually releasing the pressure.

At this point, you could stir in some chopped kale or spinach to bump up the nutrients.

How to serve the White Bean Soup:

make the harissa oil by stirring harissa paste with olive oil.

While the white bean soup is cooking- make the Harissa Oil.  Swirl together harissa paste and olive oil to drizzle over the soup. Now, this is optional but pretty tasty.

You can also just use a drizzle of olive oil.

Smoky Tomato White Bean Soup, you can make in your Instant Pot or on the stovetop using dry beans. Smoked paprika and optional Harissa paste give it a delicious flavor that will have you coming back for seconds.  Low in calories, high in fiber, this soup is vegan and gluten-free.

Serve the soup with some fresh flat-leaf parsley, pepper or Aleppo chili flakes and harissa oil.

Fresh baked crusty bread or baguette is nice here too to mop up all the flavor.

Or make sourdough croutons – always nice to have on hand for soups and stews!

Here's a simple, hearty White Bean Soup you can make in your Instant Pot or on the stovetop using dry beans. Smoked paprika and optional Harissa paste give it a delicious flavor that will have you coming back for seconds.  Low in calories, high in fiber, this soup is vegan and gluten-free. #whitebeansoup

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Our BEST instant Pot recipes! Smoky Tomato White Bean Soup with roasted peppers and optional harissa oil, made with dry beans in an instant pot or on the stove top. Vegan and gluten free.

Smoky Tomato White Bean Soup

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 21 reviews
  • Author: Sylvia Fountaine | Feasting at Home
  • Prep Time: 25
  • Cook Time: 30
  • Total Time: 55 minutes
  • Yield: 12 cups 1x
  • Category: soup, stew, vegan, beans
  • Method: Instant pot
  • Cuisine: North African
  • Diet: Vegan

Description

Smoky Tomato White Bean Soup made with dry beans in an instant pot or on the stovetop. Vegan and gluten-free.


Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 1 lb dry white beans, soaked 8-12 hours ( 2 cups dry) or sub 3 x 14-ounce cans, drained
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 6 garlic cloves, rough chopped
  • 1 1/2 cup carrots, chopped
  • 2 cups celery chopped
  • 1 tablespoon fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
  • 1/4 cup white wine (or skip it)
  • 14 ounce can diced tomatoes, with juices (or 1 1/2 cups fresh tomatoes, chopped)
  • 1 cup roasted bell pepper, chopped (from a jar is OK or use a fresh bell pepper)
  • 6 cups veggie broth or chicken stock ( or sub water and 2 teaspoons veggie bullion)
  • 2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice or AC vinegar

Garnish: Harissa Oil or olive oil, fresh flat-leaf parsley, crusty bread.

Optional Harissa Oil:


Instructions

  1. Soak the cannellini beans in 3 times the water for 8-12 hours.
  2. Set Instant Pot to Saute function. (See notes for stovetop version)
  3. Heat oil and saute onions 5 minutes. Add garlic, stir for 2 minutes.
  4. Add carrots, celery and thyme, give a good stir. Deglaze with wine and scrape up any brown bits.
  5. Add tomatoes, roasted peppers, drained white beans, broth or stock, salt, smoked paprika, cumin, pepper, cayenne and bay leaves. Give a good stir.
  6. Set the Instant pot to High Pressure for 12 minutes.( If using canned beans,  pressure cook 6 minutes.)
  7. Manually Release after 5 minutes.
  8. Stir in the lemon juice.

Serve with a drizzle of Harissa Oil, or a drizzle of olive oil, fresh flat-leaf parsley, pepper and crusty bread. This Roasted Garlic Olive bread is especially nice here.


Notes

Optional Harissa oil: whisk 1 tablespoon Harissa paste with 3 tablespoons olive oil in a small bowl.

Meat-eaters- add a 1/4 cup Spanish-style chorizo ( finely chopped) to add smoky flavor.

3 x 14-ounce cans of white beans is roughly 4 1/2 cups of cooked white beans.

Stovetop Version:

  1. Heat oil over medium-high heat, in a dutch oven, and saute onions 5 minutes. Lower heat to medium, add garlic, stir for 2 minutes or until fragrant.
  2. Add carrots, celery and thyme, give a good stir, cook for 5 minutes. Deglaze with wine and scrape up any brown bits.
  3. Add tomatoes and their juices, roasted peppers, broth or stock, soaked beans, salt, smoked paprika, cumin, cayenne, pepper and bay leaves. Give a good stir.
  4. Bring to a simmer, cover and simmer gently on low or medium-low until the beans are tender roughly 20 -25 minutes (depending on what size beans you use). Uncover and cook off some of the liquid if need be.
  5. Stir in the lemon juice. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 2 cups
  • Calories: 252
  • Sugar: 7 g
  • Sodium: 881.6 mg
  • Fat: 8.8 g
  • Saturated Fat: 1.1 g
  • Carbohydrates: 36.7 g
  • Fiber: 10.3 g
  • Protein: 9.6 g
  • Cholesterol: 0 mg

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Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing this recipe — I’m always looking for new Instant Pot recipes. My only suggestion would be to include an option for using canned beans since an 8-12 hour soak is not always an option. I used three drained/rinsed cans of cannellini beans and kept everything else the same and the soup turned out beautifully.

  2. Love this recipe. I needed some vegetarian soup options and came across this and it turned out delicious! I’m making it again now.






  3. Absolute keeper! I had to stop myself from eating the whole batch. I made half a recipe, and with less dried thyme and I am already looking forward to the leftovers for lunch!






  4. Hello! I was wondering if you could do this in a crockpot/slow cooker? If so, how would you adjust the recipe?

    1. Yes, it should be fine in a slow cooker, but I would use white navy beans not cannellini beans. Cook covered on low for 8-9 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.

  5. Another excellent recipe . My family loved it. I used the bean and chilli setting on the instant pot . Worked well for me . I used fresh bell peppers so the color was different . But taste was great . Thanks Silvia for another great recipe .






  6. This was SO tasty. I used mayocoba beans and skipped the wine (didn’t have any at the time) and both my husband and I love it. This recipe is definitely a keeper. That broth is just wonderful!






  7. Awesome soup! Great the first time for this novice chef. I took some to work to share with co-workers, big hit all around.






  8. I have made this recipe a few times now. Always delicious. Like another reviewer, I added a little Spanish chorizo with the onion for those that prefer meat. Harissa oil is awesome as a garnish.






  9. Very good, and beautiful as well! Made this stovetop and added around 3-4 oz. of chard (from our garden, blanched and frozen last Fall). The green chard leaves added another color to the dish and fulfilled my need for something green at every meal. Agree that the harissa oil was a nice addition. Will definitely make again.






  10. I’m planning to make this soup stovetop on Tuesday (gonna be cold here in New England!). Can I assume that the soaked beans are added to the recipe along with the stock and tomatoes? Although I confess that 25 minutes of cooking for soaked beans seems awfully short unless they’ve been precooked.
    Regardless, the beans don’t seem to be mentioned in the stovetop version of the recipe!

    1. Yes, Mary add the beans along with the broth. I updated the recipe- thanks for catching that. 😉

  11. If using canned butter beans (that’s all they had at the store), at what point would you add them to the stew? Surely not the whole 20 mins? Thanks!

    1. Yes Rohini, you could! You’ll need 3 cans unless you halve the recipe and I would start with only 4 cups veggie broth- then add more if you like.

  12. Just learning to incorporate white beans into my meal planning. This soup is great. Just gone done with week’s meal prep and did this one with the pozole from the post today.

    I haven’t served it with a crusty bread yet but I can tell that will be a great touch!






  13. Hey! I’m excited to try the recipe but do I not soak all the beans? Will the 2 C dry beans cook through in the instapot?

    1. Those BIG cannelloni beans will cook very unevenly in an instant pot without being soaked first and will also take longer. Also liquid won’t be enough here in this recipe- I highly suggest soaking Katie! sorry I know it sometimes a pain to soak first but better results- I promise!

  14. This was delicious! I soaked one pound of beans but didn’t add them all–as another reviewer noted, it was a lot of beans. It also took at least 50 minutes on the stovetop to cook the beans to my liking (not the 20-25 minutes noted in the recipe). But, this was otherwise simple to make and hearty. The addition of the harissa made it extra special.






  15. This is so delicious! I didn’t make any changes to the recipe – it was perfect on the stovetop! It’s so warming and on a rainy day like today, it’s exactly what I felt like. Next time I’ll try it with tinned beans as that would make it a very speedy meal.






  16. This was absolutely delicious! I made it for my family for dinner and there were fights over the leftovers. One son told me it was the best soup I’ve ever made, and another asked me to make it every week. I used dried navy beans, as that’s what I had on hand, but next time I’ll use cannellini beans. I made the recipe as written, however, I added some Spanish chorizo along with the broth before pressure cooking. The smokiness of the chorizo was perfect with the smoked paprika. I am gently trying to nudge my family to eat more vegetarian meals, and I’ve found that sometimes adding in a small bit of meat makes the transition easier and less noticeable.






        1. I did not brown it first since it was cured Spanish chorizo. I just chopped it, and added it with the broth before pressure cooking it.

  17. Made last night for dinner with cannellini, white northern, and pinto beans (all I had on hand) – so so good!






  18. This is so flavorful! Used my Mayocoba beans, which really hold their shape, yet are creamy and meaty. The soup was brothier that I’d expected from the pictures, but we certainly weren’t mad about it. Everyone wanted more. My husband, on his second helping said, wait…there’s no meat in it?! The soup will definitely go into our rotation. That’s for another winner!






  19. I’m eating this soup right now, and it is fantastic! The harissa oil & garlic bread make it pop! Definitely my new comfort food.






  20. This was very tasty – I used 3 x tins of rinsed white beans, and only 4 cups of stock – the harissa oil is such a lovely delicious defining addition. We are now looking forward to yummy leftovers.






  21. I made this recipe using the stovetop version and I used orca beans instead of white cannelli beans. I only printed out the stove top version and I realized that adding the beans to the pot was omitted. I think it is better to use the 2 cups dry beans measure than the 1lb measurement. A whole pound of dry beans makes lots and lots and lots of beans. I precooked my beans for 25 minutes since I like them creamy not “al dente” and I froze 4 cups of partially cooked beans for later Delicious recipe. I love the smoked paprika flavor and Harissa oil at the end.






  22. I made this today using rinsed canned white beans. I also used roasted canned tomatoes. Delicious! Wish I could post a photo.






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