Cooking beans has always been a challenge, and a very annoying thing to do. With the whole soaking, not soaking, over night soaking dilemma, beans became a bit of an enemy because I never had 80 hours to cook beans, and most of the time I wanted beans for dinner and not two days later. This is where the Instant Pot appears. Beans and the instant Pot are a better love match than any other one out there. Today’s post covers one of the most used type of bean in my country and a brand new recipe with the most flavorful beans (and tomatoes) out there: A white beans tomato soup in the Instant Pot.
Soaking the beans
I know in the chickpea post, and the lentil post, I did not soak them at all. I chose to soak my white beans because I actually thought about it and because planning is sometimes a good thing. Put the white beans in a large pot with water and left them there over night.
To cook the dry beans in the instant pot:
The following day, I placed 3 cups of vegetable broth with 1 cup and half of beans in my instant pot and I cooked them at high pressure for 15 minutes. Natural release for 5 to 10 minutes then they are ready to be used.
If there is still a bit of liquid, you can either keep it and use it for later (with the recipe below), or just throw it (even though I strongly discourage against it).
With the beans, you can either use them for the recipe I will share with you now, or storage them and use them for whatever meal you might be having later.
Recipe: White Beans Tomato Soup in the Instant Pot
This recipe is rather easy. It’s one of those “dump-and-forget” classics of the Instant Pot. The key to this recipe is to have everything cut and ready to be put in the Instant Pot when the recipe calls for it.
You will start by sautéeing all the vegetables and the beans (already cooked) with the spices for 5 minutes so that all those flavors get to know each other a bit before you close the Instant Pot.
Once they have been cooking for a while, you will add the 3 cups of vegetable broth (here is where you can use some of that leftover broth from cooking the beans) and 1 cup of tomato sauce. You will also mix the canned tomatoes.
Once you do this, you can go ahead and close the lid, put the vent to pressure and set 5 minutes on High Pressure. It will take around 10 minutes to reach pressure, and once the timer is at 0, you can Natural Release for 10 minutes, then quick release the rest.
The result
The end result of this white beans tomato soup should: smell like home, look incredibly warm and taste like a combination of all good things. I think you have probably noticed, and I have definitely mentioned this in the past, but if I could choose one type of cooking, I’d choose soups. There is so much versatility in them, and they provide with so much flavor and pleasure, it is crazy.
I realized way too late and this is 100% on me (my brain has been a bit unorganized these last days), that this recipe is a bit similar to my previous chickpea recipe. I’ve used very similar ingredients, but the flavors are different and this was not spicy (the chickpea soup was). The ingredients might be similar, but the taste is different and both soups are just equally good.
Can I use this recipe with any other bean?
I accidentaly made two very similar soups (chickpea soup and now, the white beans soup) so the short answer is yes. If you prefer lentils over white beans, go ahead and switch it up. This is a very affordable and with pretty basic ingredients and flavors, so it will taste good no matter what you use.
Can I freeze this soup?
Yes, totally. Just make sure to let the food cool off a bit (Around 1h) before you put it in the freezer. Also make sure you have good quality containers. I prefer to use glass containers when freezing stuff.
What can I eat this with?
You can have a bit of cous cous with this soup, or some toasted bread. I’d say polenta is also a good side dish, as well as rice.
White Beans Tomato Soup
Ingredients
- 2 small onions
- 1 big can canned tomatoes
- 2 small carrots
- 1 cup peas
- 2 sticks celery
- 1 cup white beans
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 2 tbsp basil
- 3 cups veggie broth
- Salt & Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Press sauté on the instant pot and add a bit of olive oil. Cook the onions for 2 minutes.
- Add the rest of the vegetables and mix well. Cook for 2 more minutes.
- Add the beans and the spices. Cook for a couple more minutes and mix well.
- Turn off the sauté function and add the tomatoes. Use the tomato juice and pour 1 cup of it inside.
- Mix well and add the remaining cups of veggie broth.
- Close the lid, put the vent to “pressure” and then select “pressure cooker”. Set timer to 5 minutes. The instant pot should reach pressure in around 10 minutes. When the timer goes off, natural release for 10 minutes then quick release.
Tag @tofu_cado on Instagram and hashtag it #tofucado and tell me your experience with this recipe!
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There are no beans in the ingredients list.
Hi! You are correct. Thanks for noticing, I had written so many times the word “beans” that I forgot it in the most important part haha. It’s fixed now 🙂
Have a nice day,
Meri
Does this recipe use dry beans or pre-cooked beans? You discuss pre-cooking dry beans in your article, but the actual recipe does not inform us.
Hi!
Basically I cooked my dry beans before using them in the recipe (with the instant pot) and I quickly describe how I did this before the recipe.
I used those beans in the recipe.
Meri