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Home » Recipes » Soups

Pinto Bean Soup

Published: Jan 9, 2023 by Lexi

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This Pinto Bean Soup is super hearty, packed with flavor, and can be made in one pot. Plus, it makes for the perfect weeknight dinner, coming together in under an hour!

Overhead of the finished pinto bean soup with limes and tortilla strips on the side.
Hearty, flavor-packed and absolutely delicious!
Jump to:
  • Why We Love This Recipe
  • Ingredients
  • Ingredient Notes
  • Instructions
  • Expert Tips and FAQs
  • More Soup Recipes to Enjoy
  • 📖 Recipe

Why We Love This Recipe

  • Warm and comforting: This soup is absolutely perfect for a winter weeknight dinner. It's warm, cozy, and oh so delicious.
  • Quick and easy: This soup is as easy as prepping the vegetables, adding everything to a pot and letting it simmer. It's definitely weeknight friendly!
  • Filling: Unlike some soup recipes that just don't leave you full, this pinto bean soup is a complete meal, especially with some cornbread on the side. It has plant-based protein, carbs (from potatoes) and plenty of vegetables. Plus, you can load it up with toppings!
  • Meal prep friendly: Make a big batch of this pinto bean soup and enjoy for quick lunches and dinners all week. You can also freeze it for later use.
  • Vegan/vegetarian friendly: This pinto bean soup is naturally free from dairy, so it's a great option for all dietary needs.

Ingredients

Here's what you'll need to make this pinto bean soup:

Pinto bean soup ingredients including tomato paste and celery.
The recipe only requires a few fresh ingredients – everything else is shelf stable!

Ingredient Notes

  • Potatoes: We used yukon gold (or yellow) potatoes, which hold their shape nicely and have a buttery flavor and fluffy texture. You can also use russet potatoes, fingerlings, or baby potatoes.
  • Vegetable broth: Use a low sodium vegetable broth so that you can better control the salt content in the soup. If you'd like, you can also try this recipe to make homemade vegetable broth from leftover veggie scraps! If you're not vegan/vegetarian, feel free to sub with chicken broth.
  • Lime juice: Freshly squeezed, always. All good soups need a hint of acidity to balance out all of the flavor.
  • Pinto beans: The star ingredient of this soup! We're using canned pinto beans for this recipe, which we drain but don't rinse.
  • Poblano pepper: These are pretty mild, but they add a touch of heat for a more flavorful soup. (Note: they are less spicy than jalapeño.) However, if you are super sensitive to spice, you may want to leave these out or even substitute with a green bell pepper.
  • Green onion: You can also sub with regular yellow or white onion.
  • Oil: We used avocado oil, which is great for high heat, but you can also use olive oil, vegetable oil or another oil of choice.
  • Tomatoes: Fire roasted diced tomatoes add an extra layer of flavor to this soup, but if you can't find any, regular diced tomatoes are fine too.

Instructions

(1) Add oil to a large soup pot over medium heat. Add green onion, poblano pepper, celery, and garlic. Cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring often.

(2) Stir in potatoes, tomato paste, oregano, chili powder, 1 ½ teaspoon of salt, cumin, and coriander and continue cooking for 6-7 minutes. If it starts to dry out/burn, pour in about ¼ cup vegetable broth to deglaze the pot.

Left: greens cooking in soup pot. Right: adding in the spices and tomato paste.
Sautéing the potatoes in the spices helps add more flavor to this soup.

(3) Pour in broth, fire roasted tomatoes and lime juice. Bring the soup to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer for 25 minutes.

Left: adding the liquids into the pot. Right: the liquids simmering in the pot.
Wait to add the beans until the end.

(4) After 20 minutes, stir in the pinto beans and the cilantro. Continue cooking for 10 minutes. Taste and add up to an additional ¼ teaspoon of salt if desired.

Left: showing the beans in the soup. Right: finished pinto bean soup.
Serve with desired toppings, like tortilla strips, cheese, avocado, cilantro, etc.

Expert Tips and FAQs

  • Stir frequently: While the vegetables are cooking (before adding in the broth), make sure to stir frequently to prevent burning. You can always add in a few tablespoons of the broth early to keep things from drying out.
  • Garnish: We love topping this soup with some tortilla strips, cheese and/or sour cream (vegan or regular), diced tomatoes, or avocado. A little extra fresh cilantro is also delicious!
  • Storage: Let soup cool to room temperature, then transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for 5 days. Reheat in a small saucepan over medium heat.
  • Freezer storage: Let the soup cool completely, then transfer to a freezer safe container and freeze for up to 6 months. To reheat, let the soup thaw in the refrigerator overnight before gently reheating on the stove. 
  • Serving suggestions: We recommend serving this soup with warm bread (try our homemade cornbread or garlic bread!) and a light side salad (like our Mexican Street Corn Salad or our Vegan Taco Salad).
Close up overhead of a bowl of the pinto bean soup.
This pinto bean soup is perfect for meal prep.

More Soup Recipes to Enjoy

  • Red Cabbage Soup
  • Vegetable Dumpling Soup
  • Vegan Cream of Mushroom Soup
  • Broccoli and Pea Soup

Tried this recipe? Please leave a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. You can also stay in touch with us through social media by following us on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or by subscribing to our newsletter.

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📖 Recipe

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Overhead view of the finished pinto bean soup topped with tortilla strips.

Pinto Bean Soup


  • Author: Lexi
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 4-6 servings 1x
  • Diet: Vegan
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Description

This Pinto Bean Soup is super hearty, packed with flavor, and can be made in one pot. Plus, it makes for the perfect weeknight dinner, coming together in under an hour! 


Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 3 tablespoons oil (avocado oil, olive oil, vegetable oil, etc)
  • 1 cup thinly sliced green onion (~2 bunches)
  • ¼ cup diced poblano pepper (~1 medium poblano pepper)
  • 1 cup celery diced (3-4 stalks)
  • 2 teaspoons garlic, minced (~2 cloves)
  • 2 cups yellow potatoes, diced into ¼-1/2-inch pieces
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
  • 1 ¼-½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • ½ teaspoon coriander
  • 4 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 14.5 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
  • 2 14.5 ounce cans pinto beans, drained (no need to rinse)
  • 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, finely chopped

Instructions

  1. Add oil to a large soup pot over medium heat. Add green onion, poblano pepper, celery, and garlic. Cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring often.
  2. Stir in potatoes, tomato paste, oregano, chili powder, 1 ½ teaspoon of salt, cumin, and coriander and continue cooking for 6-7 minutes. If it starts to dry out/burn, pour in about ¼ cup vegetable broth to deglaze the pot.
  3. Pour in broth, fire roasted tomatoes and lime juice. Bring the soup to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer for 25 minutes.
  4. After 20 minutes, stir in the pinto beans and the cilantro. Continue cooking for 10 minutes. Taste and add up to an additional ¼ teaspoon of salt if desired.

Notes

Garnish: We love topping this soup with some tortilla strips, cheese and/or sour cream (vegan or regular), diced tomatoes, or avocado. A little extra fresh cilantro is also delicious!

Storage: Let soup cool to room temperature, then transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for 5 days. Reheat in a small saucepan over medium heat.

Freezer storage: Let the soup cool completely, then transfer to a freezer safe container and freeze for up to 6 months. To reheat, let the soup thaw in the refrigerator overnight before gently reheating on the stove. 

Poblano pepper: These are pretty mild, but they add a touch of heat for a more flavorful soup. (Note: they are less spicy than jalapeño.) However, if you are super sensitive to spice, you may want to leave these out or even substitute with a green bell pepper. 

  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 50 minutes
  • Category: Soup
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: American

Nutrition

  • Serving Size:
  • Calories: 315
  • Sugar: 8.5 g
  • Sodium: 1438.8 mg
  • Fat: 9.6 g
  • Carbohydrates: 48.1 g
  • Fiber: 11.1 g
  • Protein: 9.9 g

Keywords: vegan pinto bean soup

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Hi, we're Lexi and Beth, a mother-daughter team from Michigan. The recipes you'll find here are a reflection of how we bring our family together around the dinner table despite various dietary differences.

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