15 Bean Soup Recipe
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15 Bean Soup is a vegetarian bean soup recipe you’ll love! Easily made in the slow cooker, instant pot or on the stove for a cheap meal! So hearty, filling and easy to make!
This vegetarian 15 bean soup recipe is easy to make and absolutely delicious!
Secretly healthy and super filling, this veggie loaded soup is also really budget friendly!
The bean soup mix is under $2.50. Add in a few flavorful veggies, canned tomatoes, broth and you’re looking at maybe $7 to make a huge pot. It comes out to less than .80 cents per serving!
Liz’s Tips for the Best Bean Soup
- Make sure to soak the beans for at least 8 hours. 24 hours or allowing them to soak overnight is even better.
- Toss the seasoning packet that comes in the bag. You’re better off seasoning the soup with your own dried spices!
- Customize it to your liking! There are a lot of substitutions listed in the green box below, feel free to add more veggies or meat like sausage or ham to this recipe!
Ingredients
Where can I buy 15 bean soup? I always find this 15 bean soup mix at Walmart, it’s the cheapest there. This is the brand of dry mix I buy, but other 15 bean or mixed dry beans will work too, including the Goya brand.
Substitutions.
Beans: You can make this soup with any dried beans (navy, cannellini, black bean, etc.) Most stores sell a 15 bean soup mix, or you can buy it online.
Veggies: Feel free to add other veggies to this soup. Mushrooms and zucchini are delicious additions. I also sometimes stir in kale or spinach at the end when the soup is done cooking.If you don’t have carrots, celery, or onion – omit them. You can add 1 teaspoon of onion powder or garlic powder instead!
Canned Beans: Cut the cook time in half if using canned beans. We also love this Tuscan White Bean Soup.
Broth: If you like a broth-ier soup, add more liquid. The beans absorb the liquid as they cook, and thicken due to the starches during/after cooking. You may need to add more broth if eating the next day/reheating! You can use chicken broth, beef broth, vegetable broth or your favorite bone broth.
Spicy Soup: If you would like to add some spice, try topping it with your favorite hot sauce or adding red pepper flakes to taste.
Parmesan Cheese Rind: I love to add a parmesan cheese rind into the soup while it’s cooking. It adds more flavor and can easily be removed at the end like a bay leaf. This soup is also great when topped with fresh parmesan cheese.
Additions:
- 15 Bean Soup with Chicken: Add 1 lb raw chicken breasts to this soup when it starts to cook. Before serving, remove chicken breasts from the soup, shred them on a cutting board, and stir shredded chicken back into the pot.
- 15 Bean Soup with Sausage: Smoked sausage is great in this recipe. Quarter smoked sausage. Brown in olive oil before sautéing the veggies in this recipe and follow the recipe otherwise.
- 15 Bean Soup with Ham Hocks: You can add 1 lb chopped cooked ham to this recipe. You could also use leftover ham or throw in leftover ham bone or ham hocks while the soup is cooking, just remove the ham hocks before serving or check out this Slow Cooker Ham and Bean Soup!
- Ground Beef Bean Soup: You can brown 1 lb of ground beef in the pan before sautéing your vegetables.
Soaking beans for Vegetarian Bean Soup
The most important step is soaking your beans ahead of time. Make sure to soak the beans for at least 8 hours, but 24 hours or allowing them to soak overnight is even better.
Soaking the beans is an important step for the soup and if you don’t soak the beans ahead of time your soup will not cook the same. Soaking the beans for bean soup not only affects the cook time but also affects the flavor.
It also can help to make the beans easier to digest.
What beans are in 15 bean soup? The Bean Soup mix I use is made up of: northern, pinto beans, large lima beans, yellow eye, garbanzo, baby lima, green split peas, kidney, cranberry, small white, pink, small red, yellow split peas, lentil, navy beans, white kidney, black beans.
How to make Bean Soup
- Sauté onion, garlic, salt, and pepper in olive oil for about 5 minutes. Stir in celery and carrots. Sauté for an additional 5 minutes.
- Add bay leaves, tomatoes, broth, water, and drained beans.
- Bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and let the soup simmer uncovered for 1 hour, stirring every few minutes.
- Once cooked, remove bay leaf + serve.
How do you know when the beans are done cooking? Beans are done cooking when they start to soften. The best way to know is to taste test them! If the skins of the beans are starting to come off that could mean that they are overcooked so be careful!
Serving suggestions
This soup is very filling on it’s own, but you could also serve it alongside:
- Protein – Serve it alongside these Chicken Tenders or a piece of Balsamic Grilled Chicken for a well balanced meal.
- Bread – a big loaf of crusty bread is the way to go 🙂
- Salad – This Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad is my favorite.
Storage
Storing: This bean soup will last for up to 4 days in the refrigerator. Store in an airtight container.
Reheating: You can reheat your soup in the microwave or on the stovetop. If frozen, defrost the night before in your refrigerator, or heat on the stovetop.
Can you freeze bean soup? Yes, you can freeze bean soup for up to 3 months! Let leftover soup cool to room temperature before transferring it to a freezer safe container. I love these molds for freezing leftovers.
Other healthy soup recipes:
If you love soup, get a copy of our free healthy soup ebook! We also have a post filled with Healthy Soup Recipes!
15 Bean Soup (Vegetarian)
Ingredients
- 1 20 oz package dry bean mix soaked at least 8 hours
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup diced onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 2 cup quartered carrots
- 4 cups low sodium vegetable broth
- 4 cups water
- 1 15 oz can tomato sauce
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 dried bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
Instructions
Stove Top Instructions
- Important: Before making this soup recipe you must soak the beans for at least 8 hours. 24 hours is best. This helps them to cook, and also helps with digestion. If you do not soak them it will change your cook time and also can affect the taste of the soup.
- Rinse and drain soaked beans.
- In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onion, garlic, celery and carrots to the pot. Sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add soaked beans, vegetable broth, water, tomato sauce, and and dried spices to the pot. Stir together.
- Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Once the soup is boiling reduce heat to medium and cook for 1 hour, stirring every few minutes.
- Once cooked, remove bay leaf. Top with parmesan cheese and enjoy!
Crockpot Instructions:
- Important: Before making this soup recipe you must soak the beans for at least 8 hours. 24 hours is best. This helps them to cook, and also helps with digestion. If you do not soak them it will change your cook time and also can affect the taste of the soup.
- Rinse and drain soaked beans.
- (Cooking vegetables ahead is optional, but recommended for best flavor) In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add in onion, garlic, celery and carrots. Sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Transfer sautéed vegetables to the crockpot base. Add soaked beans, vegetable broth, water, tomato sauce, and and dried spices to the pot. Stir together.
- Cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4 hours.
- Once cooked, remove bay leaf + serve.
Instant Pot Instructions
- Important: Before making this soup recipe you must soak the beans for at least 8 hours. 24 hours is best. This helps them to cook, and also helps with digestion. If you do not soak them it will change your cook time and also can affect the taste of the soup.
- Rinse and drain soaked beans.
- Set instant pot to Sauté for 5 minutes. Heat olive oil. Add in onion, garlic, celery and carrots. Sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in celery and carrots. Sauté for an additional 5 minutes.
- Add soaked beans, vegetable broth, water, tomato sauce, and and dried spices to the pot. Stir together. Make sure to scrape any bits of onion or garlic off the bottom of the pan with a spoon to avoid a burn notice.
- Set to sealing, pressure cook for 11 minutes. It will take the soup about 20-30 minutes to come to pressure.
- Once cooked, quick release the pressure. Stir, remove bay leaf + serve.
This is a recipe I make every year around the holidays, ,using my left over ham and bone. Just grab a nice loaf of French bread and enjoy! As a matter of fact I have a pot of 15 bean soup cooking on the stove as we speak!
made this tonight, AMAZING!
Instructions say, “Add soaked beans, tomatoes, vegetable broth, ….” but no tomatoes listed in ingredients, just “tomato sauce”. So, which is it, tomato sauce, tomatoes, and/or both?
I just updated it to clarify. The only form of tomatoes in this recipe are tomato sauce and that’s what I was referring to in the instructions.
This was really good. Will make it again soon. Thanks for posting an excellent recipe.
The bottom of the recipe says to add “crushed tomatoes” but I don’t see those in the ingredients list. How much “crushed tomatoes” do I add?
Sorry about that, there are only canned tomatoes in this recipe. I just updated it for clarity 🙂
Can you make this on stovetop?
Yes, there are instructions right in the recipe for the stovetop 🙂
I made this twice family went crazy over it – I followed recipe exactly Thank you!
I added some tomato paste and a vegetable seasoning. It was so good, reminded me of alphabet soup from when I was a child.
I really like your recipes!
Thank you so much!
This was so good! I used the Wegmans 14 bean soup mix and soaked for 8 hours. I doubled the carrots and celery too and used homemade salt free veg broth for the water and broth.
Highly recommend!
Really glad you liked it, Mikayla!
I made this today. I used 5 Andouille Sausage cut into slices and put them in with the onions and garlic from the beginning.
I halved the recipe, it was enough for the two of us, with leftovers which I like.
It turned out very good, I loved it. I will certainly make this again and again, because I still have a lot of beans left (13 Beans Mix from Bob’s Red Mill). Thank you for this easy and delicious recipe! 🙂
That’s a great idea to add sausage – so glad it turned out well!
Thanks for the great recipe! I tweaked it to add more spices, a little cayenne and some smoked paprika as well as some andouille style chicken sausage and kale. Really yummy and hearty.
I love this soup. I did double the spices but otherwise made as directed. Delicious.
Delicious and nutritious! This soup was a hit with my family, including one of my kids who is pretty picky—it had so much more flavor than I would have expected for such a simple ingredient list. We will definitely be adding this to our regular rotation of healthy recipes!
What would weight watchers points be
I’m not sure- you’d have to put the points in your app.WW is always changing their points system and I just can’t keep up with it!
This is definitely a recipe I will make again with a couple of tweaks.
I used the stovetop method and needed an extra 30 minutes to cook so total of 1.5 hours once it simmered.
I added a bit more salt and pepper. Also added about 1-1/2 Tablespoons of tomato paste toward the end of the cooking process for more flavor and some sweetness.
You do not put the seasoning packet from the beans in? I am assuming not seeing most are ham flavored but I wanted to check before I give this a go tomorrow.
I don’t use that packet. It makes it way too salty in my opinion!