Creamy Lemon Bean Soup
This is the easiest and the creamiest white bean soup you'll ever make! This soup is made with simple pantry staples, and it's a great starting point if you want to improvise and add other leafy vegetables like spinach or escarole! The perfect weeknight soup, it is ready to serve in under 30 minutes and takes next to no prep time!
Ingredients
- 2 cans cannellini beans (in water and sea salt)
- 2 Tbsp pesto paste
- 2 Tbsp garlic paste (or about 4 cloves if using fresh)
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt
- white pepper
- garlic powder
- onion powder
- thyme
- parsley
- basil
- 4 cups water
- 1 lemon (zest and juice)
Instructions
- Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the pesto paste and garlic paste to the oil. Stir and simmer.
- Open the cans of beans and drain the liquid. Add the beans to the skillet and stir to coat. Season with salt, white pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, parsley, and basil. After the beans are stirred and heated through, add the water and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Add the zest and juice of ½ the lemon (or to taste). Continue to simmer for about 5 more minutes. Then remove from heat and let cool for about 5 minutes. Add all contents of the skillet to a blender. (Add a little water if mixture is thick.) Blend until creamy.
- Add blended creamy mixture back to skillet. Stir in water as needed until soup is desired thickness. Add more seasoning to taste, parsley, basil, and a squeeze of lemon juice if needed.
- Serve immediately with some crunchy rustic croutons and a drizzle of olive oil.
Notes
If you prefer the texture of the beans, you can skip the blender and use a potato masher to crush some of the beans. You can also choose to blend only a portion of the beans and leave the rest whole. Just remove about half of the beans, blend, and add back to the skillet with the rest of the whole beans.