9 Hearty Bean Soups That'll Warm You Right Up

These soups prove beans are the ultimate cold-weather ingredient.

By
Emily Johnson
Emily Johnson
Emily Johnson
Emily has worked as a food writer and editor for ten years, across publications such as Lucky Peach, Epicurious, Bon Appétit, and The New York Times Cooking.
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Published January 13, 2026
A bowl of zuppetta Scarola e Fagioli with croutons and beans a spoon scooping out the soup

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Beans are sort of unrivaled superstars. What other singular food item is packed with fiber and protein, but also lends actual creamy richness to a dish? They allow you to have your cake (nutritionally) and eat it too (deliciously). When the depths of winter hit and you want to eat something that sticks to your ribs, but also want to feel like you’re eating something genuinely nurturing for your body, you should turn to warming, delicious bean soup. We’ve rounded up nine recipes below that highlight this all-star ingredient, like a creamy ham and bean soup, two stellar vegetarian chilis, and two simple-but-perfect Italian bean soups. 

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  • Ham and Bean Soup

    Ham and bean soup

    Serious Eats / Liz Voltz

    Your version of the best ham and bean soup might be different from mine: Ideal consistencies run the gamut from crystal clear broth with beans floating in the soup, to thick, fully pureed bean soup. Here, half of the cooked beans get pureed for creamy texture, while others are left whole for some chew. No matter your ideal consistency, we can all agree that simmering your ham hock for hours (as you do in this recipe) allows for more concentrated salty, rich pork flavor to come through in the soup.

  • Neapolitan Escarole Bean Soup

    A bowl of zuppetta Scarola e Fagioli with croutons and beans a spoon scooping out the soup

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    This recipe is customizable based on the amount of time you’re working with—there’s an option to use dried, pressure-cooked, or canned beans, extracting the most flavor possible out of each option (though you should understand that dried is always going to be best). While most traditional Italian versions of this soup ask you to blanch the escarole separately, Daniel Gritzer has removed that step not only for efficiency, but because cooking the escarole in the actual broth means that its flavor will imbue the soup with subtle bitter complexity.

  • The Best Vegetarian Bean Chili Recipe

    A large bowl of vegetarian bean chili topped with sliced avocado, scallions, cilantro, and white onion. The periphery of the image contains a wide variety of plates and bowls holding tortillas, sliced limes, and additional chili.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

    I assume that if you’re a person who thinks beans have no place in chili, you won’t have found your way onto a roundup of bean soup recipes (or will be making one of the other options on this list). The goal for Kenji Lopez-Alt when he developed this recipe was to take vegetarian chili off the shelf of 30-minute meal territory. To make vegetarian chili that has the level of richness and nuance that an endlessly simmered all-beef variety has. To do that, you’ll give the chili powder a pass and instead use a mix of dried whole chilis that each bring heat, fruitiness, and smoke in their turn. An ingenious addition of chopped chickpeas lends textural intrigue, while a long simmer allows for flavor development and creamy texture. Finishing with liquor lends its own complex flavor, but also brings the sweetness and acidity of other ingredients forward.

  • Pressure Cooker Black Bean Soup With Sausage and Cumin-Lime Sour Cream Recipe

    20160218-black-bean-andouille-pressure-cooker-soup-vicky-wasik-1.jpg
    Vicky Wasik

    Black bean soup is endlessly versatile—it can come together in 30 minutes on the stovetop and still not be lacking in richness, or be simmered for hours and take on the intricate heat and spice profile of chorizo and chiles. In this happy medium recipe, black beans take an intense 40-minute trip through the pressure cooker. This tool allows you to use the superior dried bean but still have a soup that comes together in less than an hour. Andouille sausage lends smokiness and mushrooms add umami—and the high pressure allows the flavors to meld in the way that might usually take hours of simmering, or an overnight rest in the fridge.

    Continue to 5 of 9 below

  • Pasta e Fagioli (Italian Bean and Pasta Soup)

    Overhead view of a soup lifting a bite of soup

    Serious Eats / Fred Hardy

    Once again, we find ourselves with a recipe that can be made a million different ways, based on a million different preferences or loyalties to particular regions of Italy. This version is a nod to the pasta e fagioli made in and around Tuscany and it all hinges on using high-quality dried beans because the recipe includes little more than those beans, pasta, and some powerful aromatics. Wanted a version that maximizes flavor but allows for the convenience of canned beans? We’ve got that too.

  • Creamy Braised Pork and Bean Stew With Cinnamon, Fennel, and Onion

    Pork and beans in a Dutch oven.

    Debbie Wee

    Rather than springy bits of ham, this take on the time-honored bean and pork combination offers meltingly tender, shreddy pork. To achieve perfectly-textured dried beans, you’ll brine them in a solution of salt and baking soda prior to cooking, which removes the pectin and results in a creamier bean. Shitake mushrooms and fish sauce make this dish deeply savory, while a pop of vinegar at the finish cuts through the rich earthiness.

  • Ribollita (Hearty Tuscan Bean, Bread, and Vegetable Stew) Recipe

    20160201-ribolita-vicky-wasik-019.jpg
    Vicky Wasik

    Traditionally in Italy, adding beans and bread to vegetable soup was a way to stretch leftovers, but this soup is worth making from scratch all on its own. The broad assortment of vegetables used here makes this soup deeply flavorful. Turnips and carrots are earthy; butternut squash adds sweetness; and celery and leeks lend aromatic nuance. Make it as brothy or thick as you prefer.

  • Hearty White Bean and Spinach Soup with Rosemary and Garlic Recipe

    20130210-white-bean-spinach-soup-1.jpg
    J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

    It’s time to pull that stock you prepped out of the freezer. Start with homemade stock to create a deeply flavorful soup base, but use canned rather than dried beans so you don’t have to wait forever to achieve creaminess. They’re going to lend starchiness that emulsifies into silky perfection with olive oil (do use the good one you save for drizzling applications).

    Continue to 9 of 9 below

  • The Best Sweet Potato and Bean Chili

    20140202-vegan-sweet-potato-chili-beans-recipe-16.jpg
    J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

    Yes, this recipe compilation contains not one but two powerful vegetarian chili recipes. This one relies on many of the same principles as the last: You’ll start from dried chiles, this time forming them into a paste by rehydrating them with stock, then blending with orange juice and raisins. You’ll also layer your aromatics for depth of flavor. The sweet potatoes set this recipe apart: they lend an unrivaled creaminess and, of course, a touch of earthy sweetness to the final dish.

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