Tuscan White Bean Soup Recipe
White Bean Soup is a hearty Tuscan style white bean soup featuring cannellini beans, vegetables, bacon, Swiss chard, and the prominent Parmesan cheese flavor in every bite. The beans are creamy, flavorful, and soft, perfect for a comforting soup.
Table of contents
The season of comfort food is upon us, which means I have the perfect excuse to make soups on a weekly basis! This white bean soup is one of our favorites. It’s richly flavored and so hearty that just one small bowl can fill you up. But don’t be too surprised when you’re craving seconds.
What really separates this white bean soup from others that I’ve had is the preparation of the beans themselves. With my simple step by step instructions for preparing the beans to be cooked in this soup, they always turn out absolutely perfect. Set a little extra time aside to prepare the dried beans for the most perfectly cooked, soft, and creamy beans in the end.
There are plenty of other ingredients at play in this Italian soup that create the perfect medley of flavors and complimentary textures. Vegetables like celery and carrots, herbs like fresh bay leaves and rosemary sprigs, and an array of seasonings like crushed red pepper and garlic powder are just a few of the key components of this boldly flavored comfort food.
Ingredients for This White Bean Soup
How to Make White Bean Soup
- For faster cooking and softer bean texture, soak your beans. Rinse the beans, then place them in a mixing bowl or pot. Add enough water so the beans are fully covered with about 2 inches of water above them. Then, stir in a little bit of salt.
- Cover the soaking beans, then allow them to sit in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours. Strain them when ready to cook.
- In a small pot, combine the stock, herbs, and seasonings. Heat it to simmer and take off heat.
- In a Dutch oven, cook bacon with a little oil until it’s fully cooked and the fat is rendered. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon, and leave bacon fat in the pot. Set bacon aside for serving.
- Cook the onion, celery and carrots in the same pot as the bacon fat unit everything is softened. Then, stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant.
- Add the beans and stock to the pot, then bring it to a boil.
- Lower the heat and cover the pot with a lid, leaving a small crack for steam to escape. Cook the soup for approximately 30-40 minutes, stirring just a couple of times.
- Add the Swiss chard, diced tomatoes, and parmesan rind. Stir everything to fully incorporate.
- Cook the soup for another 30-40 minutes. You’ll need to stir it from time to time.
- When done, discard of the bay leaves, rosemary stems and parmesan rind. Serve it topped with bacon bits and grated parmesan cheese!
What if I Forgot to Soak the Beans?
You can definitely still make your soup, but it will take longer to cook. The final result will also not be as smooth, soft, and creamy and the beans will have tougher skins.
If you’re cooking the beans from dry, you will need to cook the beans a couple of hours longer. Different size beans will take different additional cook time. Still make sure to cook them at a low temperature and stir every 30 minutes or so.
How Long Do Beans Take to Cook?
Most soaked bean will take 45 minutes to 2 hours to cook, depending on the variety, size, and age. Here is an approximate cooking time for the soaked white beans:
- cannellini beans: 60-90 minutes
- great northern white: 45-60 minutes
- navy beans: 90-120 minutes
More Comforting Soup Recipes
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Tuscan White Bean Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb raw bacon
- 1 tbsp avocado or olive oil
- 1 yellow onion
- 2 celery ribs
- 2 medium carrots
- 8 garlic cloves
- 5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 sprig of rosemary
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- salt to taste
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 lb dry cannellini beans soaked
- 8 oz Swiss chard
- 14.5 oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 Parmesan cheese rind
Instructions
Soaking the beans:
- Empty the bag of beans into a rimmed baking sheet and sort through the beans to get rid of any small stones or debris.
- Rinse the beans and place them into a mixing bowl or a pot. Add enough water to cover the beans with extra 2 inches of water. Stir in a tablespoon and a half of salt until dissolved.
- Cover and place the beans in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours.
- Strain the beans.
Making White Bean Soup:
- Prepare all of the ingredients before starting to cook: Dice onion, carrots, and celery. Dice cold bacon. Peel, smash, and mince the garlic cloves. For Swiss chard, you can take the leaves off the stems of keep the stems. Slice the chard into pieces or just rip it. In a small sauce pot, combine stock, bay leaves, rosemary, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and crushed red pepper flakes. Heat it to simmer and take off heat.
- Heat up a large Dutch oven over medium heat and add oil when it's hot. Add diced bacon and let is cook until bacon bits are completely cooked and the fat is all rendered. Take bacon bits out with a slotted spoon and set them aside. Leave the fat in the pot!
- Add onion, celery, and carrots to the pot and cook until for a few minutes, softened. Stir in garlic and cook it for a few seconds, until fragrant.
- Add beans and pour in the warm stock mixture. Stir and turn up the heat to bring it to boil.
- Once boiling, turn the heat down to low and cover the pot with a lid. Leave a small crack for the steam to escape. Let the soup cook for 30-40 minutes, stirring a couple of times.
- Add Swiss chard, all of the diced tomatoes from the can, and the Parmesan rind to the soup. Stir to incorporated throughout and taste to see if you need to add more salt and pepper.
- Cook another 30-40 minutes, until the beans are soft and tender. Make sure to stir from time to time.
- When the soup is done, discard the bay leaves, rosemary stem, and Parmesan rind.
- Serve topped with bacon bits and some fresh grated Parmesan cheese.
Notes
- Beans: use cannellini beans for this white bean soup but if they’re not available, you can substitute other small white beans like navy beans and great northern beans. (Note that all varieties of white beans will have slightly different cook time.)
- Swiss chard: this is a wonderful hearty and nutritious leafy green but if you don’t have access to it, kale or collard greens will also work.
- Storing: store leftovers in an air-tight food storage container, in the refrigerator. Properly stored, it will last about 5 days.
Nutrition
Originally published on Will Cook For Smiles in September 2021.
All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
Smells great, I always add a few more carrots a few potatoes that needed to get used and I had Swiss chard and Kale in the garden so used that instead of spinach. Just need to get the crusty bread made.
Tastes great nice size recipe enough for a container in the freezer.
I am glad you liked it, Carol!
I can’t wait to make it. I can only find the cannelloni beans in a can When should Iadd them to the soup
Hi Kim,
You will cut the time down to about 30 minutes since the canned beans are already cooked. Make sure to also drain and rinse the beans before using them.
Delicious will keep
Thanks, Carol!
Great tasty soup….hubby thought it was the best ever! I added the tomatoes and Parmesan rind into the mix with the stock and the beans….came out great.
I used Italian sausage instead of bacon and spinach instead of Swiss chard because that is what I had. So good!!!
I am so glad you liked it, Sherry!
This is awesome! I used smoked pork shanks, and wow ! Definitely recommend!
Yum! Glad you liked the recipe!