Butter Bean Soup: Creamy, Hearty and Easy
Senior Editor & Writer
Nicholetta Bokolas
Award-winning food blogger and writer sharing simple recipes, good food, and the stories that come with them.
I LOVE soup season. Growing up in a Greek household on the East Coast of Canada, where the winters can be brutal, there was a pot of bean soup simmering on our stove at least once a week during the cooler months. Lentil soup, white bean soup, chickpea soup — we knew them all by heart. So making a big pot of soup when the temperature drops just feels natural to me. This butter bean soup recipe has quickly become one of my favourites because the beans have the most incredible creamy texture. I purée some of the butter beans and vegetables with a little broth, then stir everything back into the pot. You end up with a rich, creamy soup without adding any actual cream, while still keeping plenty of whole beans and vegetables for texture.
And it’s all done in one pot in just 30 minutes. That’s my kind of cold-weather dinner.
At a Glance
- Serves: 4–6
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- One-pot meal: Everything cooks in one Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot
- No cream needed: Blended butter beans naturally thicken the broth
- Lots of vegetables: Onion, carrot, celery and kale
- Pantry-friendly: Canned butter beans, tomato paste, tomato purée and vegetable broth do most of the heavy lifting
- Finishing touch: Red wine vinegar, Pecorino and black pepper
Ingredients:
- Freshly ground black pepper, for servingExtra virgin olive oil, for serving, optional
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 4-5 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 small carrot, diced
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 3-4 thyme sprigs
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp sea salt, plus more to taste
- 1 tsp fresh ground pepper
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 cup tomato purée
- 2 540 ml cans, butter beans, drained and rinsed
- 5 cups broth, vegetable or chicken
- 4 cups chopped kale, tough stems removed
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
For Serving
- Pecorino romano cheese, grated
- fresh pepper
- olive oil
Instructions:
- Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat.
- Add the onion, celery and carrot and cook for 4–5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.Add the garlic, thyme, oregano, salt and black pepper.
- Cook for about 1 minute, stirring, until fragrant.
- Add the tomato paste and cook for 1–2 minutes, stirring it into the vegetables and herbs to deepen the flavour.
- Stir in the tomato purée and cook for another 1–2 minutes.
- Add the butter beans and vegetable broth. Stir well and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the beans are heated through and the flavours have come together.
- Using an immersion blender, partially blend some of the beans and vegetables directly in the pot, leaving plenty of beans whole. Alternatively, carefully transfer a portion of the beans, vegetables and broth to a small blender, blend until smooth and pour it back into the pot. This naturally thickens the soup and gives it a creamy consistency.
- Add the kale and simmer until wilted and tender.
- Remove the soup from the heat and stir in the red wine vinegar. Taste and adjust the salt and black pepper as needed.
- Ladle into bowls and finish with shaved Pecorino, freshly ground black pepper and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, if desired.
- Don’t forget to rate this recipe and leave a comment!
What Are Butter Beans?
If you’ve been wondering what are butter beans, they’re just lima beans. Depending on where you live, you may see the names butter bean and lima bean used differently, but butter beans are generally the larger, mature lima beans with a soft, creamy texture.
Whatever you call them, I think they’re seriously underrated. If you’ve made your way through lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans and other white beans and want something different, butter beans are such a good option.
The thing I love most is their texture. They’re big enough that they don’t disappear into the soup, but the inside becomes beautifully soft and creamy.
That’s exactly why they work so well in this butter bean soup recipe.
The Trick That Makes This Soup So Creamy
There is no heavy cream in this butter bean soup.
Once the beans have simmered in the broth, I take some of the butter beans and vegetables with a little liquid and blend them until creamy. You can do this with a small blender or use an immersion blender directly in the pot.
Then everything goes right back into the soup.
It’s such a simple step, but it completely changes the texture. The blended beans naturally thicken the broth while the beans left whole give every bowl some substance.
You can control the consistency, too. Blend just a little if you like a brothier soup, or blend more if you want it really thick and creamy.
Why I Use Tomato Paste AND Tomato Purée
These two ingredients are doing slightly different jobs.
I cook the tomato paste for a minute or two after the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, thyme and oregano have softened. Giving the tomato paste a little time in the hot pot deepens its flavour before any liquid goes in.
Then I add the tomato purée.
The purée adds more tomato flavour and gives the broth extra body without turning this into a heavy tomato soup. Combined with the creamy butter beans, it creates a really nice balance.
It’s one of those little layering steps that doesn’t take much additional time but makes the finished soup taste like it has been simmering much longer than it actually has.
Don’t Skip the Red Wine Vinegar
The red wine vinegar goes in after the soup comes off the heat, and I wouldn’t skip it.
After you’ve built all those savoury flavours with butter beans, tomato, garlic, thyme, oregano and vegetable broth, one tablespoon of vinegar gives the whole pot a little lift.
You don’t want the soup to taste vinegary. That’s not the goal.
It just needs that little bit of acidity to balance everything out. Taste the soup before you add it, then taste it again afterwards. You’ll see what I mean.
Tips for Really Good Butter Bean Soup
Use canned beans for an easy dinner. I use two 540 ml cans of butter beans, drained and rinsed. It makes this an incredibly practical butter beans recipe when I want something nourishing without planning ahead.
Build your flavour first. Give the onion, carrot and celery a few minutes to soften in the olive oil before adding the garlic, thyme and oregano. Those few minutes make a difference.
Cook the tomato paste. Don’t immediately pour in the broth. Let the tomato paste cook for a minute or two first to deepen its flavour.
Don’t blend everything. For me, the combination of creamy puréed beans and whole butter beans is what makes the texture so good.
Add the kale near the end. It doesn’t need long. You want it tender and wilted without cooking it forever.
Taste before adding more salt. The Pecorino added at the end brings plenty of salty flavour, so I always taste the finished soup before adjusting the seasoning.
Finish with the good stuff. Shaved Pecorino, freshly ground black pepper and a little extra virgin olive oil take a simple bowl of bean soup to another level. If you like a little spice, red pepper flakes are a nice addition here.
Why Butter Beans Are Great for Quick Soup
One of the reasons I love this recipe for busy nights is that canned butter beans are already cooked.
We’re not waiting hours for dried beans to soften. Once the vegetables have cooked and we’ve built some flavour with the tomato paste, tomato purée and seasonings, the beans really just need time to heat through and absorb some of that broth.
That’s how we can get a soup that tastes hearty and comforting on the table in about 30 minutes.
And because we’re blending some of those beans, the soup develops that slow-simmered creamy consistency surprisingly quickly.
It’s a very good trick to have in your back pocket during soup season.
What to Serve with Butter Bean Soup
This soup is hearty enough to be dinner all on its own, but I’m never going to turn down a big piece of crusty bread.
Actually, crusty bread might be mandatory. You need something to drag through that creamy broth at the bottom of the bowl.
You could also serve it with a simple green salad if you want something fresh on the side.
Because the soup already has beans, kale, carrots and celery, I don’t think you need to overcomplicate the rest of the meal. Bread for dipping, lots of Pecorino on top and I’m happy.
This soup also reminds me of gigantes plaki, a Greek baked lima bean dish similar to something I grew up eating. For me, there’s something especially comforting about both dishes. Beans, tomato, olive oil and vegetables are such simple ingredients, but they’re the kind of food I grew up eating and still crave when the weather gets cold.
FAQ
Are butter beans and lima beans the same thing?
Yes, butter beans are a type of lima bean, although the terminology can vary depending on where you live. Growing up, I knew them as lima beans but butter beans sound so cool to me. They’re large, soft and creamy, which makes them especially good for soups and stews.
Do I need to drain canned butter beans for soup?
Yes. For this recipe, I drain and rinse both cans before adding the beans to the pot.
How do you make butter bean soup creamy?
You don’t need cream. My favourite method is to blend some of the cooked butter beans and vegetables with the vegetable or chicken broth and then stir everything back together. The beans naturally thicken the soup.
Can I use an immersion blender?
Absolutely. Use an immersion blender directly in the pot to partially blend the soup, or transfer a portion to a small blender and then pour it back in. Either method works.
Should I blend the entire soup?
I think this soup is much better when you have that contrast between the creamy broth and plenty of whole butter beans and vegetables.
Can I make butter bean soup ahead of time?
Yes. This is a great make-ahead soup. It may become thicker in the fridge as the beans continue absorbing some of the broth, so you can loosen it slightly when reheating if needed.
What can I substitute for butter beans?
Cannellini beans or great northern beans would be your closest substitute. The texture won’t be exactly the same, though, and that buttery texture is one of the reasons I love this particular soup so much.
A 30-Minute Soup I’ll Make All Winter
There are certain foods that immediately take me back to my childhood, and a big pot of bean soup is one of them.
Maybe that’s why I love this butter bean soup recipe so much. It’s simple, nourishing and made with the kind of ingredients I almost always have somewhere in my kitchen. Nothing fancy and nothing complicated.
You get creamy butter beans, plenty of vegetables, a tomato-rich broth, kale and that little hit of red wine vinegar at the end. Add a pile of shaved Pecorino, lots of black pepper and a piece of crusty bread and I’m VERY happy.
And the fact that I can get the whole thing on the table in 30 minutes?
Even better.
This is exactly the kind of simple, cozy dinner I’ll be making on repeat all soup season.
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Nicholetta Bokolas
Nicholetta is an award-winning food blogger and writer whose work lives at the intersection of food and story. She shares simple, approachable recipes inspired by the flavours she grew up with, grounded in the belief that good food should never be too complicated. She is currently writing a food memoir that traces her grandmother’s journey from Greece to Canada, and the recipes that carried her through building a new life and a successful restaurant. A lifelong home cook, Nicholetta is most at home in the kitchen, cooking for the people she loves and gathering around a table where food is as much about connection as it is about what’s on the plate.
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