Anyone else borderline obsessed with soups right now? Especially soups that are substantial enough to serve as a main meal? Hands up!? This white bean and sausage soup is another one for the soup recipe collection. Fat Italian sausage meatballs loll in a herby clear or cream-based soup, alongside plump legumes and a generous helping of chunky winter vegetables.
If you’ve tried Italian Wedding Soup, this recipe will be ringing bells. The difference is Wedding Soup uses small pasta in place of beans and leaves out the cream. Which soup camp are you? Pasta or beans?
This post contains affiliate links. When you purchase through our links, we may earn a commission.
Italian sausage soup with white beans
Hearty and comforting, customisable and economical, quick to prep and easy to cook. And flavoursome! This soup is a busy cook’s dream.
While you can use any sausage you like, Italian sausage is a nifty flavour building block, it’s sweet tasting with fennel and juicy pork. Pairing with creamy white beans balances both the coarse texture of the sausage and its strong flavour. It’s these two elements working in synergy that makes this soup exceptional.
Built on a solid soffritto foundation, that’s celery, onion and carrot, it’s a wholesome soup from the outset. Dried herbs: basil, oregano and thyme all help to conjure Italian hillside flavours for a truly Mediterranean meal.
As a substantial soup of sausage and beans and potatoes and vegetables, there’s no need for anything else. Except maybe a slug of cream if you want to add a touch of decadence.
Substitutions and variations
This soup with sausage and beans is a bit like a combination lock. You could make it 999 times and come up with a different recipe each time.
The essentials are sausage, beans and greens. And even those can be tinkered with.
I’ve used Italian sausage as it’s fragrant with fennel, coarsely ground and mostly meat (little rusk). But peppery Lincolnshire, poultry versions, or just plain old British bangers will do. Flavoured sausages work best in my opinion as they are ready-made flavour bombs that enhance the depth of the soup.
With almost endless types of beans to choose from, you could make a different bean and sausage soup every week! I used butter beans, not only because I had a can to hand, but because they are smooth-textured and, well, buttery. Speckled borlotti beans look pretty and taste a bit nutty, cannellini are fluffy and mild. But the options are endless! Which will you use?
I like leafy greens in a soup. Kale is robust and tough, so it keeps it texture when added to soup. Cavolo nero is fantastically flavoursome. Spinach can be used, but I find it a bit wilty. And if you can’t get your hands on leaves, throw in some frozen peas. No-one is watching!
If you are dairy-free, you can leave out the cream or use your favourite plant-based substitute.
Finally, texture. Are you a chunky soup or a smooth soup kind of person? I love the flavour of this herb-rich broth, so I tend to leave out the cream and keep it chunky.
Recipe tips and notes
- I love Italian sausage in this soup, but you can use your sausage of choice. If you don’t buy pork products, chicken or turkey sausage are great alternatives.
- Using a lower fat pork sausage will ensure the soup doesn’t become too oily.
- I’ve used creamy textured butter beans as that’s what was in my stores, but I’d happily have used cannellini or borlotti.
- I’d take kale over spinach in a soup. It keeps its integrity where spinach can get a bit sad and slimy.
- And cream. This completely optional ingredient will make for a smooth and luxurious finish or leave it out for a more wholesome bowl.
- Use light cream (single (UK)) so as not to overwhelm the delicate vegetable flavours.
Serving suggestions
A simple, firm-structured bread is all this soup needs as a side kick. A savoury sourdough or rye will hold their shape when plunged. Or go for garlic! Air fryer garlic bread is stuffed with cheese and makes a satisfyingly melty accompaniment to this herb-heavy Italian sausage soup.
Storage and leftovers
A soup in the freezer is worth two in the fridge. OK, so not a real proverb, but still true! It’s an absolute life-saver- it’s cold, dark and wet in the evenings and you don’t want to head to the supermarket after work, but luckily you have freezer soup to fall back on!
Providing you leave the cream out of this white bean soup recipe, it will keep in the freezer for up to 4 months. Defrost in the fridge overnight and reheat gently on the hob. If you wanted to use cream, now’s the time to add it.
More soup recipes to try
White Bean and Sausage Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp This is an affiliate link.olive oil
- 1 lbs Italian style sausage casing removed and broken into chunks
- 1 stalk celery
- 1 carrot
- 1 small onion
- ½ tsp basil
- ½ tsp oregano
- ½ tsp thyme
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cans butter beans or cannellini beans drained
- 2 potatoes diced
- 6 cups This is an affiliate link.chicken stock
- Salt to taste
- 50g / 2 cups kale tough stalks removed and cut into small pieces
- 125ml / ½ cup single cream / half and half (optional) see notes
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a soup pot. Remove the sausage from the casing, add to the pot, break up the sausage with a spatula and fry until golden on the outside and cooked all the way through, then remove to a separate plate.(If your sausage is very fatty, remove the excess fat but leave 2 tbsp in the pot)
- To the same pot, add the chopped onion, celery and sliced carrot and cook for 10 minutes over low heat, then add minced garlic, basil, oregano and thyme, cook for 30 seconds longer.
- Add the drained canned beans, peeled and diced potatoes, a bay leaf and bring the sausage back to the pot.
- Then top with the chicken stock, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. At the end the potatoes should be soft. If you want to make the soup thicker, remove ⅓ of the beans and potatoes from the pot and blend them into a paste in a blender, then add back to the soup and stir. Or you can skip this step to make it simpler.
- Now add the kale and cook for 5 minutes longer. Taste and add more salt if needed.
- At this point you can serve the soup or you can add ½ cup of single cream(light cream) if you desire and warm it through. Both version taste delicious!
Notes
- Adding cream is completely optional but will make for a smooth and luxurious finish or leave it out for a more wholesome bowl.
Leave a Reply