How to Make White Bean and Bacon Soup: It’s Healthy, Flavorful and Super Easy
This main course soup is hearty, healthy, and super delicious! My husband enjoyed it so much I made it twice in one week. And now, I pretty much make this every week! Cooking for one or two people, no problem, the leftover soup freezes great. Each bowl has 225 calories, 2 grams of fat. Amazingly, each serving has 12 grams of fiber!
Helpful Tips About this Recipe
Makes 6 main-course servings. Each 1½ cups.
Helpful Tips About this Recipe:
Food Facts
Cannellini, Great Northern, and Navy are three popular types of white beans. In most supermarkets, you’ll find cans that say white beans, Cannellini, or Northern. I used cans that said white beans.
Shopping Tips
This is one of my favorite brands of bacon. It’s called Applegate Farms Natural Sunday Bacon. It’s low in fat and calories, uncured, and contains no nitrites! Many supermarkets carry this brand. I bought it at Vons/Safeway and Whole Foods. Here’s the link to their website:http://www.applegate.com/products/natural-sunday-bacon Before finding this healthier bacon, I had combed the supermarket shelves looking for one of the leanest regular bacon choices and Oscar Meyer Center Cut Bacon is my favorite, compared to most regular bacon. It’s much lower in fat and calories, 3 slices contain 70 calories and 4.5 grams of fat. Once cooked on paper towels, most of the fat soaks into the paper, not in the bacon, so the fat is further cut down. In my Skinny Facts, I subtracted out the fat that’s left on the paper towels!
Cooking Tips-Directions to cook on stovetop
1. To a blender, add 1 can of beans and 1 cup of water. Blend until smooth. In a large nonstick pan, add bacon and cook until crisp. Set aside on paper towels. Blot. Add onions, carrots, and celery to the pan and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste. Next, add pureed beans, beans, broth, Italian seasonings, red pepper flakes, and black pepper.
2. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook on low heat until beans and vegetables are soft about 25 minutes. Place 2½ cups of soup in blender and puree to thicken, add back to soup and mix well.
3. To serve: ladle 1½ cups into each bowl and top with a little crumbled bacon. Top with chives, if desired.
WW Freestyle SmartPoints 1-Blue
WW SmartPoints 5-Green
Food Facts
Cannellini, Great Northern, and Navy are three popular types of white beans. In most supermarkets, you’ll find cans that say white beans, Cannellini, or Northern. I used cans that said white beans.
Shopping Tips
This is one of my favorite brands of bacon. It’s called Applegate Farms Natural Sunday Bacon. It’s low in fat and calories, uncured, and contains no nitrites! Many supermarkets carry this brand. I bought it at Vons/Safeway and Whole Foods. Here’s the link to their website:http://www.applegate.com/products/natural-sunday-bacon Before finding this healthier bacon, I had combed the supermarket shelves looking for one of the leanest regular bacon choices and Oscar Meyer Center Cut Bacon is my favorite, compared to most regular bacon. It’s much lower in fat and calories, 3 slices contain 70 calories and 4.5 grams of fat. Once cooked on paper towels, most of the fat soaks into the paper, not in the bacon, so the fat is further cut down. In my Skinny Facts, I subtracted out the fat that’s left on the paper towels!
Cooking Tips-Directions to cook on stovetop
1. To a blender, add 1 can of beans and 1 cup of water. Blend until smooth. In a large nonstick pan, add bacon and cook until crisp. Set aside on paper towels. Blot. Add onions, carrots, and celery to the pan and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste. Next, add pureed beans, beans, broth, Italian seasonings, red pepper flakes, and black pepper.
2. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook on low heat until beans and vegetables are soft about 25 minutes. Place 2½ cups of soup in blender and puree to thicken, add back to soup and mix well.
3. To serve: ladle 1½ cups into each bowl and top with a little crumbled bacon. Top with chives, if desired.
WW Freestyle SmartPoints 1-Blue
WW SmartPoints 5-Green
| SKINNY FACTS: for 1 main course serving (1½ cups) 225 calories, 2g fat, 1g sat fat, 3mg chol, 16g prot, 40g carbs, 12g fiber, 978mg sod, 5g sugar |
| FACTS: for FreestyleSmartPoints 44 calories, 1g sat. fat, 1g sugar, 5g protein |
How to Make White Bean and Bacon Soup: It's Healthy, Flavorful and Super Easy
Ingredients
- 3 (15 oz) cans white beans, rinsed and drained
- 6 slices bacon, chopped, see shopping tips
- 1½ cups onions, chopped
- ¾ cup carrots, chopped
- ½ cup celery, chopped
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (I used a 32 oz carton of Swanson’s)
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasonings or ½ teaspoon each oregano and basil
- ⅛ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Black pepper to taste
- Chives or scallions, chopped for garnish, optional
Instructions
- For instant pot: Add 1 can of beans and 1 cup of water to a blender. Blend on high until smooth. Next, set the Sauté button then cook bacon until crisp. Stir often. Set aside on paper towels and blot. Add onions, carrots, and celery to pot and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Mix in tomato paste then add pureed beans, beans, broth, Italian seasonings, red pepper flakes, and black pepper. Cook on high pressure 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, turn off and let the pressure release.
- Place 2½ cups of soup in blender and puree to thicken, then add back to the soup.
- To serve: Ladle 1½ cups into each bowl and top with a little crumbled bacon. Top with chives, if desired.
- For Crock-pot: Add 1 can of beans and 1 cup of water to a blender. Blend on high until smooth. Sauté bacon in a nonstick pan until crisp. Set aside on paper towels. Blot.
- To the same pan, keep bacon fat. Add onions, carrots, and celery to the pan and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Transfer vegetables to crock-pot. Stir in tomato paste. Next, mix in pureed beans, canned beans, broth, Italian seasonings, red pepper flakes, and black pepper. Cover and cook on Low Heat 7-8 hours. or High Heat for 3-4 hours (depending on your crock-pot) Once cooked, place 2½ cups of soup in blender and puree to thicken, then add back to soup.
- To serve: Ladle 1½ cups into each bowl and top with a little crumbled bacon. Top with chives, if desired.
Nutrition
Serving: 1.5cupsCalories: 225kcalCarbohydrates: 40gProtein: 16gFat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 3mgSodium: 978mgFiber: 12gSugar: 5gBlue Smart Points: 1Green Smart Points: 5Plus Points: 5
Tried this recipe?Let me know how it was!
this soup is sooo good! It’s my husband’s favorite!
Ann, I would soak and cook the dried beans separately then add them to the recipe as you would the canned beans. Here’s a link to how to prepare and cook dried beans: https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_cook_dried_beans/
Best of luck,
Nancy
I would love to know how to modify this recipe to use dried beans. Can you help?
So nice to hear your husband loved this soup! It’s one of my husband’s favorites.
Amazing how much weight he’s lost so far. Congratulations!
All the best to you both,
Nancy
My very picky husband loved it! So did I. He started WW the 5th of February and has lost 8.5 pounds in 17 days. Can’t wait to try your other recipes. Thank you so much!