Nourishing and satisfying, this soup is a healthy and complete plant-based meal with an explosion of comforting flavor. This is one of those roll up your sleeves type recipe that is so worth it!
WHY I LOVE IT
Packed with protein and fiber, this creamy bean soup is an all American melting pot of ingredients. A symphony of vegetables and seasonings come together to create a deep and flavorful experience. Few dishes make me feel as fully nourished as this complex soup. This soup requires some planning ahead and a whole lot of chopping, but I return to this recipe time and time again.
PREPARE YOUR BEANS
Start with a pound of dry navy beans soaked for at least four hours or up to a day. If you don’t have time to soak dry beans, you can use 3 to 4 cans of navy beans instead. Any medium to large white bean will work well in this recipe. Great northern or cannellini beans, dry or canned, would be ideal substitutes for dry navy beans, but almost any medium to large size light colored bean would work well.
IMMERSION BLENDER RECOMMENDED
In order to create a creamy texture, you will need some sort of blender or food processor. An immersion blender is especially good for soups because it saves you the trouble of taking something out of the pot and into another container. After checking to make sure that the beans are fully cooked and all the vegetables in the soup are fork-tender, I dip my immersion blender into the almost finished soup, grinding it up just enough to achieve the desired texture, usually in five or six short pulses. If using a stand alone blender or food processor, you can scoop up about 1-1/2 to 2 cups of soup and puree it in a blender or food processor until almost smooth then return the pureed portion back to the pot and mix it in to the rest of the soup. Whichever method you use, please make sure that the beans and all other vegetables are completely soft before this final step or you’ll end up with a hopelessly gritty soup.
CHAYOTE SQUASH AND OTHER OPTIONS
Chayote squash is an easy and versatile vegetable that’s available at many grocery stores in the US. The flavor is mild and it doesn’t take long to cook. In fact it can be eaten raw, peeled or unpeeled, it’s up to you. In this soup, the chayote squash gets soft and mostly dissolves into the rest of the broth. If you don’t have chayote squash, kohlrabi, peeled broccoli stalks or zucchini would all be good substitutes.
JUICY OVEN ROASTED RED PEPPER
An oven roasted red bell pepper along with as much juice from roasting the pepper as you manage to capture, gives this soup a juicy tangyness. You can roast your pepper while you prepare the other ingredients or do it ahead of time. I prefer to roast my pepper whole in a conventional oven at 450° for 20 to 30 minutes, then let it cool in a small bowl, peeling and seeding it after cooking while still in the bowl so I can capture as much of the juice as possible.
TOMATO POWDER OR PASTE
A new-to-me ingredient I’ve come to love is tomato powder which is tomato paste in a dry powdery form that can be stored in your pantry almost indefinitely. There is a subtle but distinct umami quality to the flavor. Tomato powder contributes a note of tang that’s less recognizably tomatoey than tomato paste. You can use tomato paste instead of tomato powder for this soup, and in other recipes, by substituting approximately double the amount of tomato paste for the tomato powder. Aside from enjoying the convenience, I prefer the more subtle flavor profile of tomato powder in many of my recipes.
In this recipe the tomato powder or tomato paste is added after the beans and potatoes have already cooked. The reason for this is that the acidity of tomatoes can make dried beans take longer to cook. To learn more about tomato powder check out my tomato powder ingredient spotlight post.
EARTHY UMAMI WITH MUSHROOM POWDER
Mushrooms can contribute a depth of umami flavor that we usually associate with animal foods. I love cooking with fresh and dried mushrooms. I’m even a fairly skilled mushroom hunter. But it’s often the case that I want to bring some umami mushroom goodness into my cooking without introducing the texture of mushrooms. And that’s where culinary mushroom powders come in.
Almost any culinary culinary mushroom powder would be good in this recipe, but shiitake mushroom powder is my favorite because it’s the best at subtly enhancing the umami impact of the recipe. It’s worth investing in mushroom powders as pantry staples. Using them sparingly, adding little bits here and there in your cooking, can take savory vegan dishes to another level by seamlessly and inconspicuously blending in with other flavors.
But mushroom powders have benefits that go beyond flavor. Shiitake mushroom powder is a perfect example. I would be in mad love with shiitake mushroom powder even if it wasn’t as ridiculously good for you as the research says it is. Think vitamins, minerals, immune function, weight loss and more. You can google the scientific good-for-you part, if you’re interested. After all, this is a recipe post, not a research paper for a plant medicine class, and I’ve been known to geek out a tad too much.
VEGAN VEGETABLE STOCK
For vegetable stock most of the time I use vegan vegetable bouillon cubes combined with water according to the ratio indicated in the package, usually one full cube for every two cups of water. Ready made stock that comes in boxes or cans is also fine and, of course, you can always make your own.
WORTH THE EFFORT!
Roll up your sleeves! This soup requires a lot of veggie chopping and spice measuring. But the wide variety of vegetables is also what makes it such a satisfying eat. You can make it ahead of time and keep refrigerated for several days or freeze. The flavors get better over the course of a few days.
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Navy Bean Soup with Chayote Squash Red Pepper and Potato
Equipment
- Medium to Large Cooking Pot or Dutch Oven
- Immersion Blender (you can use a regular blender or food processor instead)
Ingredients
- 1 lb dried navy beans
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 to 2 tsps olive oil (optional)
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 medium potato, diced (peeled or unpeeled, your choice)
- 1 chayote squash, diced (peeled or unpeeled, your choice)
- 5 cups vegetable stock
- 2 teaspoons shiitake mushroom powder (porcini powder also works)
- 2 teaspoons tomato powder* (or substitute with 4 teaspoons of tomato paste)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1-¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 to 2 teaspoons dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon sumac
- 2 teaspoons hot sauce (any brand, as little or as much as you like)
- 1 tablespoons coconut aminos (or substitute with soy sauce, tamari or vegan Worcestershire sauce)
- 3 cups baby spinach (or any small or chopped green leafy vegetable, large stems removed)
- ½ teaspoon salt (optional)
- ½ cup sliced green onion or chopped parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Rinse navy beans before placing them in a large bowl or pot. Add about 8 cups of cold water and soak for 5 to 24 hours. An overnight soak is ideal. Do not strain the beans until you're ready to use them in the soup.
- Start roasting your red pepper before preparing your other ingredients or up to a few days ahead of time. Preheat oven to 450°. Line a sturdy baking sheet or container such as a small pyrex pan with parchment paper. Place washed red bell pepper on the lined baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes, or until the skin of the pepper is fully blackened. Remove pepper from pan and place in a small bowl and allow to cool until it's easy to handle. The bowl is there to capture the juices while you work with the pepper. While the pepper is still in the bowl, remove blackened peel, stem and seeds, allowing juice to drip into the bowl while discarding seeds and peel. Rub off excess juice, then place pepper on a cutting surface and chop into small pieces. Return chopped pepper back to the bowl with the juice and set aside. This process is a bit of extra work but well worth it for the flavor!
- If using oil, place oil in a large pot over medium heat. For a completely oil-free version of this soup, place a couple of tablespoons of water in the pot instead of oil. Either way, keep some extra water on hand near the pot.
- Add chopped onions to the oil or water and cook, stirring frequently until onions start to become translucent. You may need to add little bits of water as you stir to keep the onions from sticking.
- Once the onions are translucent, add garlic, celery, chayote squash, carrot and potato and continue cooking over low-medium heat, stirring frequently for another 7 to 10 minutes. You will need to add small amounts of water as you cook the vegetables to keep them from charring and sticking. Go slow and be patient, you're bringing out some lovely flavors!
- Add stock and all other ingredients except for the baby spinach, tomato powder and green onions or parsley. Cook for 1-1/2 to 2 hours until the potatoes are very soft and the beans are tender. It's very important that the potatoes and beans are truly soft and tender before the next step!
- When the beans and potatoes are soft, use an immersion blender to pulse the soup until it's half creamy and half textured. If you don't have an immersion blender, you can accomplish the same thing by using a slotted spoon to remove about half the beans and vegetables and pulsing them in a processor or blender, then returning them to the pot.
- Add tomato powder and baby spinach and simmer for 5 more minutes. Stir it a bit to make sure that the tomato powder dissolved. Simmer longer if using a thicker green leafy vegetable such as chopped kale. If the soup gets too thick, and it probably will, add more water, a little at a time, to achieve desired consistency.
- Taste soup and season with salt and black pepper according to your preference and dietary needs.
- Serve hot and garnish with sliced green onions or chopped parsley.
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