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My friend Jessica is a fellow foodie and whenever we see each other, she often tells me about great recipes that she has made for her family! A while ago (last winter actually) she told me about this delicious white bean soup that her family loved – and it was the inspiration behind today’s Slow Cooker Tuscan White Bean Soup!
This Tuscan White Bean Soup couldn’t be any easier to make – it’s literally one of those recipes that you just toss everything into the slow cooker and then press the ‘on’ button. It’s a simple soup – navy beans, garlic and diced carrots, celery and onion – plus a collection of dried herbs including bay leaf, rosemary, thyme and smoked paprika, as well as salt and pepper.
We adapted the original recipe by adding in some prepared pesto at the end which really added a great boost of flavor to this hearty and filling soup!
This soup can be puréed in a blender after it is cooked to give it a completely smooth consistency if you’d like. We preferred a slightly chunky soup – so we only puréed half of the cooked soup and then stirred it back into the rest of the cooked beans and diced vegetables before serving.
Recipe adapted from Budget Bytes.
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Slow Cooker Tuscan White Bean Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic (about 4 cloves)
- 1 cup diced onion (about 1 medium)
- 1 1/2 cups sliced carrots (about 1/2 pound)
- 4 stalks celery, sliced
- 1 pound dry navy beans, rinsed and picked over to remove any debris
- 1 bay leaf (left whole)
- 1 teaspoon dried crushed rosemary
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- Freshly ground black pepper (15-20 cranks from a pepper mill)
- 6 cups water
- 1/2 cup prepared pesto (see our recipe here or your favorite jarred version)
- 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
Instructions
- In a large (5-quart+) slow cooker, pour in the olive oil and tip to coat the bottom of the slow cooker insert.
- Add all of the other ingredients – EXCEPT the salt and the pesto – to the slow cooker and stir to combine.
- Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.
- After 8 hours, remove the lid and stir the soup. Place half of the soup into a blender and process until smooth (leave the other half in the slow cooker). Pour the pureed soup back into the slow cooker with the un-pureed soup and stir to combine.
- Stir in the pesto plus 1 teaspoon salt and stir again to combine. Add additional salt and pepper to taste if desired.
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I put this soup in the crockpot yesterday at 10am and the beans are still not cooked! Am I doing something wrong? Even if my crockpot is maybe not giving off as much heat as another one, its still been over 24 hours!
Wow – I’m not sure Andria! Even if you used a bean that is larger than what the recipe called for they should be cooked by now. I’m wondering if you used some old or stale beans?
My wife found this recipe for me to make (I do all the cooking and have 30 years cooking both professionally and at home). There is nothing in the recipe about soaking the beans. If you don’t, they will be hard in the middle and quite nasty. Perhaps you might want to revise that in the recipe for those that don’t normally cook often and understand you have to presoak beans.
Hi Mike – We shared the recipe exactly as we made it ourselves – and we did not pre-soak the beans. The beans were not hard in the middle. If you decided to pre-soak the beans – that’s fine but based on our own experience making this recipe it is not necessary.
This was delicious! Tasted (and looked) like fancy restaurant soup. The pesto at the end really brightens up the flavors making it a great dish for spring or early summer. I froze about half of it and it reheats wonderfully!
We’re glad you enjoyed the recipe (I agree – the pesto totally makes the soup)!
Found your recipe on Pinterest and am trying it today. I figured it was perfect for an ice/snow day home with my boys home from school! But, of course, they distracted me as I was dumping everything in and accidentally added the salt with everything else at the beginning. I didn’t ruin it, did I?? I’m really hoping I didn’t because I am sooooooo looking forward to a nice yummy bowl of your soup tonight! Thanks!
I think you’ll be ok Jamie! Adding it at the end allows you to control how much salt is added… Hope you enjoy the soup!
It’s wonderful!! I’m going to serve it with some shredded parmesean. The perfect soup for dinner during this crappy weather. Thanks for posting!
Yay Jamie – so glad you are enjoying the soup!
I love this soup! I wasn’t convinced at first, but I made the batch, and I froze some to reheat for lunches later in the month. The freezing/thawing/reheating process really made the pesto standout. I think the pesto carries this recipe (in a good way), so be sure to use one you like. I used an immersion blender to blend in the slow cooker. Will definitely be making this recipe again. Thanks!
Thanks Lia! I completely agree…the pesto is the star! We haven’t tried freezing ourself (we ate it too quickly!) – good to know that it is still good even after the thaw! Thanks for writing to us today!
So I put this in at ten this morning… Accidentally on high. So now at the 7hr mark.. I checked it.. Thinking that it would be mush since it’s on high. But quite the opposite. The beans aren’t cooked really at all. Like i can bite into them, but not a cooked texture. Any thoughts? What did I do wrong?
Hmmm…I’m not really sure Jaime – we didn’t have that problem ourselves. Were your beans fresh (old beans can sometimes not soften when you cook them). Or – do you happen to live in an area with very hard water? My husband was recently reading an article that talked about beans not softening when cooked in very hard water – and to add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to counteract the effects of the hard water. Otherwise, I’m not sure! Here’s a link with some more info: http://www.usdrybeans.com/recipes/recipe-facts/
I really like using my crock pot, so I am anxious to make this. Fall is definitely her now, and there’s talk of snow this weekend; this soup will be perfect. However, I’ve never made this before. Aren’t you supposed to add a broth?
I really like you’re recipes . You open up a whole new world to my stomach; for that, I’m grateful!
Hi Jeannette – Thank you so much – we’re glad you found us! This recipe uses just water – but if you’d like, you could definitely use a broth instead (vegetable, chicken or beef) to add even more flavor to the soup!
I made this soup last night but since I do not own a crockpot I did it on the stovetop. It was so delicious. I did omitt the pesto as my husband does not like cheese.
The smoked paprika really rounds off the flavor of the soup perfectly!
So glad you enjoyed it Dawn! I agree – the smoked paprika totally makes the soup! Thanks for taking the time to write to us today!
It sounds really good. Question- do u soak the beans before?
Hi Michelle! No soaking is required!
The best part for me is that this is basically very healthy. I’m on a healthy eating kick (also trying to lose weight) and this fits in nicely. Unfortunately the wonderful crusty bread that would go so nicely with this is a big fat NO! Oh well.
We hope you enjoy the soup Sue! I agree – the crusty bread is the best (but most fattening) part! Thanks for writing to us today!