Bean & Pulse Soups

Bean & Pulse Soups are great winter warmers that can be tasty, nutritious and comforting. Whether you’re looking for something chunky and hearty like minestrone or more delicate like simple lentil soup, you’ll find lots to enjoy in this round-up featuring some of my favourite bean & pulse soups.

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BEAN & PULSE SOUPS

What could be better to warm you up on a chilly day than a bowl of tasty homemade soup? And if you want to keep costs down, try including some nutritious and economical beans or pulses.

I always keep a good range of beans and pulses in the house as both tinned and dried have a long shelf life. Among those I use regularly are split red lentils, green and yellow split peas, chickpeas, cannellini, black, black-eyed and borlotti beans, plus the less familiar carlin peas.

In this post I’ve brought together ten of my favourite bean and pulse soups. Click through to the recipes and you’ll find some that are quick and super-simple, others that take a little more time and a few more ingredients. But all will reward you with great taste in every steaming bowlful.

Minestrone Soup

One of the great things about this hearty one pot meal (whose name literally translates as ‘big soup’) is that you can adapt it to the ingredients available. Mine is a winter Minestrone. In the garlicky tomato broth there’s carrots, potatoes, and kale plus bacon, tinned borlotti beans, tiny stelline pasta, and a variety of fresh and dried herbs like rosemary and oregano. In summer I swap in courgettes and include lots of fresh basil.

Lentil & Bacon Soup

Made with quick cooking split red lentils plus smoked bacon and vegetables, Lentil & Bacon Soup transforms everyday ingredients into something hearty, comforting, and delicious.

Creamy White Bean Soup

One of the useful properties of many beans and pulses is that they can bring a creaminess to soups without you adding cream. Near the end of cooking, simply whizz some (or all) of the soup with a stick blender. Which is exactly what I did with this lovely Creamy White Bean Soup, subtly flavoured with garlic and rosemary.

Creamy Bean & Pancetta Soup

This gorgeous soup is based on the vegetarian white bean soup above, but here I’ve added an extra salty, smoky element with pancetta or bacon. For both soups I use cannellini beans but you can swap in haricot or butter beans.

Simple Lentil Soup

Simple Lentil Soup is a fine example of the fact that good food doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. With ingredients I always have to hand – red lentils, onion, garlic, cumin, lemon – it’s easy to make a batch whenever I fancy something warming and comforting.

Split Pea & Ham Soup

Spicy Carlin Pea Soup with Roasted Peppers

While my Spicy Carlin Pea Soup includes the hearty beans and pulses that are a mainstay of so many cold weather soups, it also harks back to sunnier days with sweet roasted peppers from a jar.

Sometimes called brown badgers, black peas, grey peas or pigeon peas, carlin peas are an old-fashioned pulse that’s recently been introduced to a wider audience thanks to now being grown in Britain. A little sweet and a little nutty, you could substitute chickpeas, black-eyed peas, green or brown lentils if necessary.

Bean, Bacon & Cabbage Soup

Chorizo, Bean & Cavolo Nero Soup

Spicy Lentil & Coconut Soup

This soup is another based on economical, easily available split red lentils. But it’s at the other end of the scale from the Simple Lentil Soup above. Here, they’re simmered with tomatoes, vegetables and spices then made creamy with coconut milk. To finish, whole spices are fried and stirred through the soup, adding more vibrant flavour.

I hope you’ve found something to inspire you among my Bean & Pulse Soups.

If you try them, do leave a comment on the recipe posts.