Creamy white bean soup — without cream

White bean soup with garlic is a classic comfort dish in the Mediterranean region.
Usually, it’s loaded with heavy cream, which also loads up the fat and calories. My version uses no cream at all, getting its body from adding extra garlic plus a lone starchy potato, and then blending most of the soup itself up into a luscious creamy consistency.
What I love about this soup is that it takes under a half hour to make from start to finish, and I usually have the needed ingredients on hand.
With white beans being so full of protein and fiber — 1 cup of beans has about 20 grams of protein and over 12 grams of fiber yet almost no fat — this meatless soup is filling without making you feel stuffed.
Serve it with a green salad with a tart Dijon and lemon vinaigrette for a typical Sunday supper that my husband grew up eating in Provence. Or, serve a half portion as a first course, and you’ll eat less at your main meal, which means you can stretch your meat budget in a sneaky and healthy way.
Or simply make this soup because it’s super easy and comforting — easing us from cold weather to warmer weather perfectly. A final note: don’t let the garlic quantities intimidate you. Boiling the garlic tames the flavor and you’ll be left with a mellow, slightly sweet complement to the creamy beans.
CREAMLESS WHITE BEAN AND GARLIC SOUP
Start to finish:
30 minutes
2 tsp. olive oil
1 small chopped onion, about 1 cup
1 stalk celery, chopped, about 1/3 cup
1 medium carrot, chopped, about 1/3 cup
½ tsp. smoked (or sweet) paprika
20 medium cloves garlic, peeled
¼ cup dry white wine
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 medium russet potato, peeled and cut into quarters
2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
1 large sprig fresh rosemary
1 large sprig fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. kosher salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
Heat oil in a large sauce pan and sweat onion, celery and carrot over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, about 5 minutes.
Add smoked paprika, garlic, salt and pepper, and cook until fragrant, another 2 minutes. Deglaze the pan with wine and stock. Bring to a simmer.
Add potato, beans, herbs, bay leaf and 2 cups of water. Bring soup to a boil and let simmer, partially covered with a lid, over medium low heat until potato and garlic are very tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool a few minutes. Spoon out the herb stems and bay leaf, and discard.
Scoop out about a cup of beans and set aside. Use an immersion blender to blend the rest of the soup until creamy. Or, blend in a traditional blender, being very careful not to get burned — blend in batches and remove the lid center, cover with a dishrag, to allow steam to escape.
Add reserved beans back to the blended soup, adjust for seasoning, and serve.
Servings: 6
(Cook’s Note: Traditionally, the herbs are tied up with kitchen string or placed in a cheesecloth pouch, called a “bouquet garni.” But fishing out the stems and allowing a few errant leaves to be blended up in the soup works quite fine for a quick weeknight soup.)
Nutrition information per serving: 181 calories; 14 calories from fat; 2 g fat (0 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 0 mg cholesterol; 586 mg sodium; 32 g carbohydrate; 11 g fiber; 3 g sugar; 10 g protein.