In case I haven’t mentioned/complained about it recently, it’s cold outside – bone-chilling cold like I haven’t felt in a long time. One of my favorite cold-weather foods is soup. The thicker and creamier, the better. I usually make cream-based soups with either coconut milk or diary cream. But I wanted to make a low calorie, vegan version so going with pureed white beans seemed like a nutritious (and delicious) alternative.
Cleaning mushrooms is one of my least favorite cooking tasks. It’s time-consuming and the dirt seems to get wiped off one side of the mushroom just to reappear on the other side. A faster way to clean mushrooms is under a trickle of running water, but they end up absorbing a lot of water. For this recipe, you have my permission to wash the mushrooms with water. That’s because most of the water gets cooked out and is then used to flavor the broth.
The ingredients that really make the flavor pop in this soup are the freshly ground black pepper and herb de provence. Feel free to adjust the amount of pepper to your liking, but I think more is definitely better. Make sure the onion is thoroughly cooked or it will overpower the other ingredients.
Once the vegetables are cut up, this dish comes together pretty quickly. This recipe makes 4 large bowls of soup. Double the batch and freeze the leftovers to warm your insides during the next arctic blast!
Ingredients (serves 4)
1 14-ounce can low sodium white beans (white kidney, great northern white, cannellini) with packing liquid
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 medium white or yellow onion – medium dice
1 pound mushrooms (I used cremini) – small dice
4 large garlic cloves – sliced
1-2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
½ tbsp. herb de provence (ground with a mortar & pestle or in a coffee or spice grinder)
4 tbsp. canola oil
salt to taste
Directions
- Saute onions in 2 tablespoons of oil with the garlic, herb de provence and ½ teaspoon of black pepper. Cook for 7 – 10 minutes until onions are completely cooked.
- Place white beans with packing liquid into a food processor or blender along with the almond milk and blend until completely smooth.
- Add fully cooked onions to the food processor and blend until completely smooth, scraping down the sides occasionally so all pieces of onion are pureed.
- Sautee mushrooms in 2 tablespoons of oil with ½ teaspoon black pepper and a sprinkle of salt for 10 minutes. As they cook, the mushrooms will start releasing liquid. Spoon the liquid into the food processor, along with about 1/3 of the cooked mushrooms, and puree with the onion mixture.
- Add contents of food processor into pot with mushrooms. If a thinner consistency is desired, add almond milk in small amounts until desired consistency of soup is achieved. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Adjust salt & pepper to taste.
- Garnish with chopped parsley or green onions (optional). Serve hot immediately.
Miranda says
It looks like I am a few years late to this party, but I am so glad I found this recipe (and your blog) and I actually made this soup tonight! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes….up next the butternut squash/tofu/peas recipe.
Amy says
Hi Miranda – I hope you liked the soup – and I know you’re going to love the butternut/tofu/pea recipe! Thanks so much for stopping by!
kristine says
This was lovely. I added a couple of sprigs of thyme because I’m obsessed with thyme, but before I did that – this recipe was fabulous!
Amy says
Hi Kristine: I’m so glad you liked it – and the extra thyme would be lovely in this recipe. Thanks for stopping by!