Bean and Mushroom Soup
Hearty and Healthy Bean and Mushroom Soup Recipe on a stovetop, in slow cooker or Instant Pot. Instructions on how to turn into a freezer meal. It is a winner!
Hearty and Healthy Bean and Mushroom Soup Recipe on a stovetop, in slow cooker or Instant Pot. Instructions on how to turn into a freezer meal. It is a winner!
- ground black pepper to taste
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 1 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 large garlic cloves crushed
- 1 can (11 oz) organic cream of mushroom soup (i used pa
- 3 large celery stalks diced
- 3 leaves
- 8 cups water or low sodium broth
- 2 medium carrots finely grated
- 1.5 lbs white or brown mushrooms sliced
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil divided
- 3 oz cans white navy beans, drained & rinsed
- 1/3 cup dill or parsley chopped (for garnish)
- Carbohydrate 7.12645201456551 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 2.81081655446845 g
- Fiber 2.01152682475489 g
- Protein 3.22056031319617 g
- Saturated Fat 0.395442739840884 g
- Serving Size 1 1 serving (157g)
- Sodium 34.9875342009273 mg
- Sugar 5.11492518981062 g
- Trans Fat 0.222031882194389 g
- Calories 60 calories
Step-by-step
- Stovetop: To a large pot, add water and bring to a boil on high heat.
- In the meanwhile, preheat medium skillet on low - medium heat and add 1 tbsp olive oil. Add onion and sauté for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add carrots, celery and garlic; sauté for a few more minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cream of mushroom soup, stir and cook for another minute. Transfer to a pot with boiling water.
- Return skillet to high heat, add mushrooms and cook until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a pot along with beans, salt, pepper and bay leaves. Cover and cook for 30 minutes.
- Slow Cooker: Follow steps above and add all ingredients to a large slow cooker. Cover and cook on Low for 6-8 hours or on High for 4 hours.
- Instant Pot: Add all ingredients in the order listed above (no sauteing necessary - the beauty of pressure cooking), cover and cook on High pressure for 15 minutes (if using dried beans cook for 30 minutes).
- Add 2 tbsp olive oil and dill (parsley), stir and serve hot.
Mushrooms do the heavy lifting in this pot, bringing umami depth that compensates for the relative neutrality of white navy beans. Browning sliced white or brown mushrooms requires high heat and patience to drive off their internal moisture before Maillard reactions can turn them golden brown and concentrate their earthy compounds. When water is added directly to unbrowned fungi, they steam instead of sear, leaving you with rubbery textures and a watery broth lacking proper dimension. Sparing 10 minutes to properly caramelize the mushrooms in a separate skillet fundamentally alters the baseline flavor profile of the entire dish. Processed cream of mushroom soup acts as a starch-heavy thickening agent here, bridging the gap between whole vegetables and the simmering broth. Substituting homemade roux or blended soaked cashews for the canned shortcut alters both the viscosity and the sodium balance significantly, requiring careful recalibration of added salt. Canned white navy beans arrive pre-softened, meaning they only require enough thermal exposure to absorb surrounding flavors rather than breaking down structurally. Cooking the assembled stovetop mixture for 30 minutes at a gentle simmer marries the starches from the beans with the aromatic base of onions, celery, and garlic without dissolving the legumes into mush. Pressure cooking alters this timeline drastically, compressing the flavor-melding phase into 15 minutes of high pressure while extracting maximum savory compounds from the whole vegetables.
