Quick Italian Chicken & Bean Soup

Last Updated on October 1, 2022 by Ellen Christian

Are you looking for a Chicken & Bean Soup recipe? We absolutely love this recipe for dinner on busy weeknights. It’s quite similar to Gordon Ramsay Bean Soup.

If you know you’ll be very busy on a certain night, you can easily make this soup ahead and store it in the refrigerator. Then, you can heat it up right before you need it. Or, you can toss everything in the slow cooker on high for about eight hours and it will be ready when you need it.

Quick Italian Chicken & Bean Soup

You can serve this Chicken & Bean soup as the entire meal. Or, you can add a side salad and homemade bread or baking powder biscuits to help fill people up. My husband loves having bread or some sort of starch with each meal. If you want to keep it easy, add pasta to the soup about 30 minutes before you need to have it ready.

Just make sure that you add a bit more liquid to the recipe if you do. You may want to try my Ratatouille Vegetable Stew in the slow cooker for a quick slow cooker meal.

I used chicken in this recipe the last time I made it because that’s what we hand on hand. But, you can easily leave out the meat entirely if you want to and make a vegetarian bean soup.

Or, you can add leftover meatballs, sausage, beef, or pork. I like to think of soup as a great frugal meal alternative because it gives me the opportunity to use up leftovers that might otherwise go to waste. It’s also a great place to hide extra vegetables that the kids don’t particularly like eating – like lima beans and zucchini.

If you enjoy a Tuscan bean soup, toss in a few handfuls of escarole and a rind of aged Parmesan cheese. I really enjoy that but my husband is not a fan of escarole so we usually make this variety instead. Here are 15 more homemade soup recipes to try this week. Or, check out the video above for another recipe.

Continue to Content

Yield: 4

Quick Italian Chicken & Bean Soup

Print

Are you looking for a quick Italian Bean Soup recipe? We absolutely love this recipe for dinner on busy weeknights.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 can Great Northern or other white beans
• 2 - 3 cups peeled, cubed potatoes
• 1 fennel bulb, sliced (I'll leave this out since I have no fennel now)
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 2 - 3 carrots, peeled and sliced thinly on the diagonal
• 1 cup of chopped leeks or scallions
• 1 cup of leftover chicken breast or other meat
• 3 Tblsp olive oil or other vegetable oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp dried basil OR 1 Tblsp fresh minced
• 1 tsp dried marjoram OR 1 Tblsp fresh minced
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme, OR several fresh sprigs
• 1/2 tsp dried ground fennel, or celery seed
• 1 tiny pinch cayenne
• 6 cups boiling water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in an 8 - 10 quart pan
2. Prep the veggies
3. Add the garlic to the oil
4. Add the veggies and saute 5 minutes on med/high heat
5. Add the herbs and spices, saute briefly.
6. Drain and rinse the beans, then add to veggies.
7. Add the boiling water, simmer 1/2 hour or until veggies are very tender.
8. Remove about 1 quart veg (except carrots) with broth, and puree in a blender. Or use a food processor, food mill, blender stick, stiff whisk, or potato masher.
9. Pour the puree back into soup
10. Add the cooked chicken breast.
11. Add salt and pepper, adjust seasonings to taste

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

6

Serving Size:

1 cup
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 410Total Fat: 15gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 39mgSodium: 480mgCarbohydrates: 51gFiber: 8gSugar: 4gProtein: 20g

Did you make this recipe?

If you make this, tag me on Instagram so I can see @ellenblogs

Ellen Christian

Ellen is a busy mom of a 24-year-old son and 29-year-old daughter. She owns six blogs and is addicted to social media. She believes that it doesn’t have to be difficult to lead a healthy life. She shares simple healthy living tips to show busy women how to lead fulfilling lives. If you’d like to work together, email info@confessionsofanover-workedmom.com to chat.