This comforting, simple vegan White Bean Spinach Soup comes together in just 30 minutes! It's so easy to make, packed with plant-based protein and fiber, and tastes great as leftovers the next day. This is the easiest vegan soup to add to your meal plan this winter!
Why we love this recipe
- SO easy to make. Seriously, I'm pretty sure a ten-year old could handle this recipe. You basically just add everything to a pot and let it all come together!
- Vegan and gluten free friendly. Packed with plant protein-rich white beans and vegetable broth. It's super easy to make gluten free with GF pasta.
- Freezer-friendly and fantastic as leftovers.
- Kid-friendly! The perfect soup to get your kids to eat more veggies and fiber without them noticing.
Video Tutorial
Ingredient Notes
- White beans: Technically, white beans could refer to four different varieties of beans, including cannellini, Great Northern, navy and baby lima beans. Any of the four will taste good in this soup, but we typically use either Great Northern (which hold up better in soups and stews) or cannellini.
- Feel free to sub vegan butter with olive oil.
- You can swap spinach with kale or swiss chard if desired.
- We always prefer freshly squeezed lemon juice in our recipes. you can really taste the difference between fresh and bottled!
- Herbs de Provence: this is an herb blend typically containing thyme, basil, rosemary, tarragon, savory, marjoram, oregano and bay leaf. You can sub 1:1 with an Italian seasoning blend, or make your own blend with any of the above ingredients.
- Feel free to use any variety of pasta, including gluten free pasta or a legume-based pasta (we used chickpea pasta here).
Instructions
This vegan white bean spinach soup comes together in just a few simple steps!
Step 1: Sauté vegetables
Melt the vegan butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and celery and continue cooking for 5 minutes until softened.
Step 2: Add seasonings, pasta and broth
Stir in the herbs de Provence, salt and pepper. Add in the uncooked pasta, the lemon juice and the vegetable broth.
Step 3: Let simmer
Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer until just before the pasta is al dente (about 8 minutes).
Step 4: Add beans, spinach and parsley
The last step is to add in the white beans, fresh parsley and spinach. Stir well and simmer on low until the spinach wilts (about 5-10 minutes).
Expert Tips and FAQs
- 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 before transferring to an airtight, freezer-safe container. Freeze for up to 6 months. To reheat, defrost in the refrigerator overnight, then heat over medium in a saucepan.
As a general rule of thumb, it's best to wait to add spinach until about 10 minutes before serving. This gives spinach plenty of time to wilt and soak up some flavor without getting too soggy.
If you really want to load this soup up with veggies, feel free to add in any of the following: carrot, leeks, potato, zucchini, green beans, etc.
This soup would also be delicious with a drizzle of homemade pesto or herb oil on top!
Great Northern beans are medium-sized and relatively firm. Cannellini beans are slightly larger and have a very tender flesh. Both hold up well in soups and stews, but when using canned, we typically wait to add until the end so they don't get mushy.
More soup recipes
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White Bean Spinach Soup
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This brothy, comforting, simple vegan White Bean Spinach Soup comes together in just 30 minutes! It's so easy to make, packed with plant-based protein and fiber, and tastes great as leftovers the next day. This is the easiest vegan soup to add to your meal plan this winter!
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp vegan butter (or olive oil)
- 1 yellow onion, diced (~1 ½ cups)
- 2 tsp finely minced garlic (1-2 large cloves)
- 1 ½ cups celery, diced
- 1 ½ tsp Herbs de Provence*
- 1-1 ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼-½ teaspoon pepper
- 8 cups vegetable broth
- Half of a lemon, juiced (~2 tbsp)
- 1 cup pasta of choice (shells, macaroni, farfalle, etc)
- 1 15 oz can Great Northern beans*, rinsed and drained
- 4 cups spinach
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, finely minced
- Optional: vegan parmesan for garnish
Instructions
- Heat butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for 5-6 minutes. Add in garlic and celery and continue cooking for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in Herbs de Provence, salt and pepper. Add in broth, lemon juice and pasta. Stir well, then bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Add in the beans, spinach and parsley and continue cooking for 10 minutes (or longer if preferred). Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.
- Serve topped with grated vegan parmesan and more fresh parsley.
Notes
*Herbs de Provence: this is an herb blend typically containing thyme, basil, rosemary, tarragon, savory, marjoram, oregano and bay leaf. You can sub 1:1 with an Italian seasoning blend, or make your own blend with any of the above ingredients.
*You can also use cannellini or navy beans in place of Great Northern beans.
You can swap spinach with kale or swiss chard if desired.
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 before transferring to an airtight, freezer-safe container. Freeze for up to 6 months. To reheat, defrost in the refrigerator overnight, then heat over medium in a saucepan.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 395
- Sugar: 6.1 g
- Sodium: 1030.5 mg
- Fat: 8.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 64.4 g
- Fiber: 16.3 g
- Protein: 18.7 g
laurie says
Great Soup...won't bore you with my slight alterations
Lexi says
Glad you enjoyed!
Shari says
I’m a vegan, my family is not. They commented on how good the soup was (even though I didn’t have the pasta, herbs de province or celery), and said it was better than the white bean spinach soup I usually make!
Lexi says
So glad to hear that!
Brooke Ashley says
Yum! Hubby and I very much so enjoyed this and it came together quickly. This would be a good recipe to prep the night before. Next time I might add some carrot for extra colour and (because we love our pasta) increase the dried pasta measure from 1 cups to 1.5 cups.
Lexi says
So glad you enjoyed, thank you so much!
Cheri says
I just made this. It's delicious!
I added an additional 1/2 C. pasta & an can of drained/rinsed Cannallini Beans.
Perfect soup for a cold day, Thank~You for sharing!
Cara Ziegel says
Made this with minor changes - no garlic (i'm allergic), gluten free noodles, probably more spinach (a bag from farmers market, didnt measure), used veggie better-than-bullion instead of salt, and added lemon at the end with the parsley. also didnt have herbs de provence so just put in unmeasured amounts of fennel, thyme, oregano, tarragon and basil.
Hubby and I both loved it!!
Lexi says
So glad you enjoyed! Thanks so much!
Patty says
Made the White Bean Soup recipe. Very good but the # of servings is not listed.
Jeanne says
Love this soup!!
The lemon juice gives it just the right flavor
Rose says
Delish, loved it!
Maria says
Tasted great no cheese added but was still very tasty
Karen says
This was so tasty. We tried Manchego cheese in it since we were out of fresh Parmesan cheese. It was a whole new soup when we did that. I love this recipe! Since I didn’t know when to put the pasta in I ended up adding the cooked pasta when I did the spinach.