Name: Roasted Garlic, Bacon, White Bean Soup
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 70 min
Ingredients: 3 heads garlic; 1½ tbsp olive; 3 slices bacon (cut into 1-2 inches pieces, plus an optional extra slice to crisp up as garnish); 1 tbsp butter (unsalted); 1 sweet onion (sliced); 3 cups white beans (approximately 2 cans, drained); 5 cups vegetable stock; optional: salt to taste

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This creamy Roasted Garlic, Bacon, White Bean Soup is so flavourful and simple to make with only 7 ingredients. It’s freezer friendly, meal prep friendly, and is perfect to cozy up to!

Blender Soup

It’s been a soup-y week at my household. While I believe soup season is year round, the second temperature drops outside, I ramp out the soup recipes by 10. I’m not even joking, H has had a packed soup to go to work with pretty much daily and my freezer has approximately 10 cups of frozen soup. I always have dried white beans in my pantry and I know a few people who panic-bought bags of dried navy beans so here’s a soup recipe using white beans to help you use them up!

Looking for a main dish to serve with this soup? Try my Dutch Oven Chicken Recipe.

Why You’ll Love this Soup

It’s freezer friendly: because this roasted garlic white bean soup is made creamy by blending everything together, there’s no dairy in it so it freezes beautiful.
It’s good for you: garlic is believed to be helpful against the common cold so once the temperature drops, garlic consumption increases! Plus the white beans are packed with fibre and protein!
It’s super tasty: we build so much flavour with this soup! The bacon adds a smoky salty flavour and the roasted garlic has a rich sweet flavour to it.

What You’ll Need To Make This Creamy White Bean Soup

garlic
olive oil
bacon
butter – I prefer unsalted as the bacon adds all the salt I need
onion
white beans – here’s how I make navy beans in the Instant Pot from dried. If using canned beans, be sure to drain them.
vegetable stock
optional: extra salt to taste

How To Make This Simple White Bean Soup

Heat your oven to 400F.
Cut off the tops of the garlic bulb, drizzle a bit of olive oil on top, and wrap it up in tin foil. Roast in the oven for 40-60 minutes.
When cool to touch, remove the garlic cloves from the skin and set aside.
In a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat, add in your bacon pieces and saute them for 2-3 minutes.
Add in butter and then onions and saute until softened.
Add in a splash of the vegetable stock to deglaze the pan before adding in the roasted garlic cloves, white beans, and the vegetable stock. Stir and bring it to a boil before lowering the heat to a simmer for 15-20 minutes.
Using an immersion blender or regular blender, blend the soup until it is smooth (I used my Vitamix). Be sure you don’t overfill your blender and remove the centre cap from the lid of your blender and cover with a paper towel to allow the heat to escape while blending.
Serve with some crispy bacon as garnish if desire and enjoy immediately or pack into airtight containers to meal prep for the week.

What is Deglazing?

Deglazing is adding liquid to a hot pan and giving the bottom of the pan a gentle nudge with a wooden spoon. This allows all of the caramelized bits stuck to the bottom to loosen off the pan. You definitely should not skip this step as that’s how you get all that delicious flavour.

How to Freeze White Bean Soup

Do not freeze hot soup. Once your soup has cooled, pour it into a mason jar, leaving a minimum of 1 inch of space on top. Using the mason jar means there’s always a serving of soup ready to go compared to freezing a large batch in a large container. Be sure you use mason jars that are freezer friendly.
When ready to use, let the soup thaw out overnight in the fridge before re-heating it. Follow glass safety instructions – the sudden change in temperature is a no-no. If you don’t want to chance anything, these plastic containers are great for soups.
I also like to use Souper Cubes for freezing soups as you can easily freeze in single servings.

How to Thaw Frozen White Bean Soup

Thawing in the fridge: thaw in the fridge for 1-2 days and microwave, preferably after transferring to a microwave safe container/bowl.
Water bath: thaw the frozen soup in a warm water bath until melted. Reheat on the stove or in the microwave.
Directly microwaving it: this method is why I love my Souper Cubes. You can pop the block of frozen roasted garlic white bean soup out of the silicone and then microwave it from frozen in a microwave safe container or reheat it on the stove with an extra splash of broth.

What to Serve with White Bean Soup

grilled cheese
pan fried pierogies
crackers
crispy chickpeas
crispy lentils
salad

Recipe Variations

Swap out the bacon to make this vegetarian friendly.
Add in some red chili flakes to add some heat to the soup
Increase or decrease the vegetable stock to adjust the thickness of the soup.
I like to top the soup with some nuts and seeds as well to add some extra texture to the soup.