In this cannellini bean soup, white beans and potatoes mingle with middle eastern spices. Cozy aromas of cardamom, cumin, garlic and celery root will permeate the kitchen as this fragrant vegetarian white bean soup simmers on the stovetop. For a hearty meal, serve with long-grain rice.
How To Make This Recipe
We begin by gathering our aromatics, which include onion, garlic, and celery root along with cumin, turmeric and a little sweetener. Cannellini beans, potatoes and seitan bring additional heft to this soup. Sometimes, we swap cremini mushrooms for seitan depending on our mood. Vegetable broth and tomato paste bring balance to this comforting soup.
WFPB (Oil-Free) Variation
To keep this dish oil-free, simply sauté those vegetables in a thin layer of vegetable broth or water in lieu of olive oil in a non-stick skillet. If your vegetables start to stick to the pan, just continue adding a little more broth or water as you sauté them. To make this dish WFPB-compliant, swap chopped mushrooms for the seitan.
Prepare Soup Base
We begin by sautéing our onion and celery root in olive oil (or broth for oil-free) over medium heat for several minutes, or until the onion just starts to brown.
Sauté onion and celery root.
Next, we add our garlic cloves and cumin. From here, we continue to sauté for a couple more minutes.
Add garlic cloves and cumin.
Once fragrant, we add our vegetable broth, soaked beans, cardamom, turmeric, tomato paste, and sweetener. Next, we bring this mixture to a boil. We then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer gently for an hour to soften those beans and blend those warm flavors. When we use canned beans, we reduce our simmer time in this step to 20 minutes.
Simmer cannellini bean soup base to blend flavors.
Add Potatoes And Seitan
While the soup simmers, we brown our cubed seitan in olive oil (or mushrooms in a thin layer of broth) over medium heat.
Brown the seitan.
Finally, we add both our potatoes and seitan (or mushrooms) to the soup pot and season with salt and black pepper to taste. We bring our soup back to a boil and reduce the heat. Then, we simmer the cannellini bean soup, uncovered, until the potatoes and beans are fork-tender and the vegetarian white bean soup thickens.
Simmer until potatoes are fork-tender.
Ready To Eat
Soup’s on! Serve your hearty cannellini soup with bread, lemon wedges and fresh chopped cilantro. Enjoy!
Enjoy your cannellini bean soup!
More savory soups:
Recipe Card for Cannellini Bean Soup
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Cannellini Bean Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil see notes for WFPB (oil-free) option
- 1 small onion finely diced
- 1/4 small celery root peeled and diced
- 1 head garlic peeled, cloves left whole
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 7 cups vegetable broth
- 2/3 cup cannellini beans dry, soaked and drained; or 2 14oz cans drained
- 7 each cardamom pods lightly crushed
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon sugar substitute or sweetener or choice
- 8 ounces seitan diced, see notes for WFPB option
- 2 medium yellow potatoes diced
Instructions
- Sauté onion and celery root in olive oil (or broth) over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until the onion just starts to brown.
- Add garlic cloves and cumin. Continue to sauté for 2 more minutes.
- Next, add the broth, dried beans, cardamom, turmeric, tomato paste, and sugar. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer gently for 1 hour. If using canned beans, reduce simmer time to 20 minutes.
- While the soup is simmering, brown the cubed seitan in a non-stick skillet with a little olive oil over medium heat.
- Add both the potatoes and seitan. Season with salt and black pepper. Bring back to a boil and lower the heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until the potatoes and beans are tender and the soup is thick.
- Soup’s on! Serve your hearty cannelleni soup with bread, lemon wedges and fresh chopped cilantro. Enjoy!
