Beans are a fantastic ingredient to use in soups, as they give a soup some substance and transform it into a full meal. They also add texture to a soup, or make it a thicker soup if you choose to blend the ingredients together. One of our favourite soups with beans is bacon and white bean soup.
The inspiration of the soup is from great northern bean soup, which is a popular American soup. It is a vegetarian soup packed full of flavour, with ingredients such as northern beans, celery, onion, carrots, and other flavourings. Some people make a meat version of the soup, and ham is the most popular option.
Which White Beans Should You Use in a Bacon and White Bean Soup?
As the origins of the soup are great northern bean soup, one of the ideal beans to choose from for the recipe is northern beans. They are a type of legume that is a typical ingredient in Northern American cookery. These beans are small to medium-sized white beans, similar to haricot and cannellini beans.
Northern beans are not widely available in other countries. However, there are some alternatives you can use with a similar taste and texture. Therefore, they will create almost the same overall flavour when you make the soup.
One option is haricot beans, which are sometimes known as navy beans. Another alternative is cannellini beans, which some people call white kidney beans. Haricot, cannellini, and northern beans are all types of white beans. They differ in size and shape, but the general taste and texture are the same.
A further option is white butter beans, although these are larger and have a slightly smoother texture and thicker shell. Also, you can switch out the white beans for beans of a different colour, such as kidney beans, if you prefer.
Other Ingredients in the Soup
Thick-cut bacon or a piece of gammon is best for the recipe, as it gives the soup some texture. We prefer to use smoked bacon for its flavour, but you can use unsmoked if you prefer.
You can also use leftover roast ham or ham hock in the soup instead of the bacon. If you plan to do so, then reserve the stock and juices from the meat to use in the soup.
We add extra flavour to the bacon and white bean soup with ingredients including Worcestershire sauce, coriander leaves, and chilli flakes. However, these are all optional ingredients, and you can omit them or increase or decrease the quantities to suit your tastes.
Here is our recipe for bacon and white bean soup.
Image credit: Kari Sullivan from Austin, TX, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Bacon and White Bean Soup Recipe: An Easy American Soup
Course: American soupsCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy6
servings15
minutes40
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An easy recipe for bacon and white bean soup, a dish inspired by great northern bean soup, a popular dish in northern America.
Ingredients for the Bacon and White Bean Soup
0.5-pound thick-cut bacon, diced
12 oz./ 360 g canned white beans
1 onion, diced
3 stalks of celery, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, peeled and finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 litres of ham, chicken or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon of oregano
½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes (optional)
2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce (optional)
A small handful of fresh coriander leaves, chopped (optional)
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste
Directions: How to Make the Bacon and White Bean Soup Recipe
- Add the olive oil to a large pan and put over medium-high heat on the hob.
- Then, add the diced bacon to the pan and cook for approximately five minutes. Do not let the bacon become too crunchy.
- Add the onion, carrot, and celery to the pan and cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally, before adding the garlic and cooking for another 10 minutes.
- Next, add the canned white beans to the pan, along with the oregano, salt, Worcestershire sauce, chilli flakes, and black pepper. Cover the ingredients with the ham, chicken, or vegetable stock.
- Turn up the heat on the hob to bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover the pan, and leave to simmer for 25 minutes.
- Taste the soup and add extra salt or black pepper as needed before serving.
- If you are using fresh coriander leaves, either add them to the bacon and white bean soup just before serving or top the soup with the chopped leaves as a garnish.
Notes
- Serve the soup with your favourite bread or top with croutons.
- You can use dried beans for the bacon and white bean soup recipe, but you will need to soak them overnight and then cook according to the pack instructions.
Other Soups You Might Like
If you enjoy American soups, you might also like our potato and bacon soup, shrimp bisque, pumpkin soup, or mushroom soup. Fans of soups with beans might like to try a Greek bean soup called Fasolada, our Moroccan chickpea soup, or a delicious three bean and chorizo soup.
Have you tried our bacon and white bean soup recipe? Let us know what you thought in the comments below.
[…] A fan of American soups? Why not try our recipes for potato and bacon soup, prawn bisque, Northern bean soup, and bacon and white bean soup? […]