Parmesan White Bean Soup with Brown Rice
This Parmesan White Bean Soup combines creamy beans, hearty brown rice, and savory Parmesan rind to make a comforting meal you can make mostly with pantry staples.
Why you’ll love this recipe: This soup is a great meatless, one pot meal that’s a bit easier on your grocery budget. This soup is made with simple ingredients that we often have on hand, but the onions, celery, herbs, and spices give this soup a great flavor.
This soup helped bring us out of our dinner rut! It tastes different from other soups on our site, thanks to the parmesan rind.
I also liked the convenience of the canned beans—though you can cook from dried if you prefer.
What kind of white beans should I use?
We preferred Great Northern Beans for this recipe. They are a medium size and hold their shape well in the soup, and they are a good source of protein.
If you’d like, you can substitute cannellini beans, which are a little larger and a little firmer but have a similar flavor. (Some cans use them interchangeably.)
In a pinch, you can use white navy beans, but they have a tendency to fall apart so your soup would be a different texture.
Why use the Parmesan rind?
The parmesan is a major part of the soup’s flavor—the soup is fine without it but GREAT with it. It is worth buying the parmesan wedge to get the rind.
While you can eat the parmesan rind after cooking, I prefer to use it like the bay leaf: flavor the soup with it and then discard.
Note: If your rind has a waxy coating on it in addition to just the hard cheese, make sure to scrape off the wax as best you can before cooking. You can also freeze your Parmesan rinds for up to 6 months, so they’re ready when you need them.
How to thicken White Bean Soup
We preferred this soup as a more brothy soup rather than a thicker stew. If you prefer your soup thicker, after pressure cooking you can remove about 1/3 of the soup and blend it until smooth, then stir into the soup. (An immersion blender won’t be able to get this as smooth as a high powered blender.)
Or, keep it easy and mix 2 tablespoons cornstarch and cold water. Stir into the soup after pressure cooking, select saute and cook until the thickener activates.
Variations
Rice. We opted to use brown rice for the texture and the extra fiber you get with the whole grain. But you could easily substitute white rice if desired. Just cut the cook time down to 5 minutes with a 5 minute natural release.
Greens. If you do opt for white rice, you can add kale before pressure cooking to help it soften. Or, add spinach after pressure cooking and allow to stand until wilted.
Seasonings. This soup is pretty adaptable if you have other seasonings you prefer (like oregano or Italian seasoning) or fresh herbs (fresh rosemary or thyme).
Storing and Reheating Leftovers
Allow the soup to cool to room temperature, then place in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days.
This soup also freezes well. We like to put it in 1-cup portions in the freezer. https://www.amazon.com/Souper-Cubes-Extra-Large-Silicone-Freezing/dp/B0FSF7M96C/
This soup absorbs quite a bit of liquid as it cools. We recommend adding extra broth when you reheat your leftovers. (We used about 1 cup.)
Serving Suggestions
I like to serve this with a side of buttered crusty bread and a tossed green salad.
To garnish, I’ll add extra red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste.
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White Bean Soup with Parmesan
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 3 celery stalks sliced ½-inch thick
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon salt plus more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper plus more to taste
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary crushed
- 2 bay leaves
- 5 cups broth we used vegetable broth
- 1 cup long-grain brown rice
- 6 to 8 ounces fresh Parmesan rind removed and reserved
- 3 cans Great Northern Beans drained and rinsed (15 oz each)
- 1/2 cup small bunch flat-leaf parsley stems discarded and leaves chopped
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice from 1 large lemon
Instructions
- Select Saute to preheat the cooking pot. When hot, add the oil and onion and celery and cook, stirring frequently, until softened , about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook 2 minutes more.
- Add the salt, pepper, rosemary, bay leaves, and chicken broth. Stir to ensure no browned bits remain on the bottom of the cooking pot. Add the brown rice and parmesan rind and stir to ensure they are well mixed. Pour the drained beans on top in an even layer and do not stir.
- Select High Pressure and 22 minutes cook time. When the cook time ends, allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, then finish with a quick release. When the valve drops, carefully remove the lid. Use a slotted spoon to remove the parmesan rind and bay leaves.
- Stir in the lemon juice and parsley, then serve immediately in individual bowls topped with a generous amount of grated parmesan.
Notes
Nutrition
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What ingredient causes this recipe to have 1634 mg. of sodium?
It’s because we called for 6 to 8 ounces of parmesan. 1 oz has 433mg of sodium. In addition, I don’t believe it is accounting for the fact that we are removing the rind from the soup before serving. You could easily reduce or exclude the additional parmesan for serving.
Being new to pressure cooking I do have a question. If you take cooked canned beans and pressure cook them for 22 minutes and cooldown, won’t the beans just disolve????
Depending on the bean, yes. But when we tried this recipe with Great Northern beans, we had great results with beans that didn’t really break down.
Question please.
When you say…. could easily substitute white rice if desired. Just cut the cook time down to 5 minutes with a 5 minute natural release.
Do you really mean to cut cook time from 22 minutes, down to 5 minutes ? Or do you mean to cut the cook time down BY 5 minutes, thus cook time would be 17 minutes ?
Thanks for clarifying.
Love your recopies and info you provide.
Daniel
Sorry for the confusion on that. If you do white rice, the cook time should be 5 minutes, with a 5 minute natural release. Enjoy!