This vegan pinto bean soup is hearty and nourishing and totally delicious. It’s also super easy to throw together and wonderfully satisfying.
This vegan pinto bean soup is the most comforting of comfort foods. Served hot with some fancy bread on the side for dipping, it’s what you want on a cold winter’s night. Or just any night where something filling and satisfying is required.
There is something about the satisfaction you get from comfort food like this. It hits the spot in a way that other meals somehow can’t.
And if you have any leftovers from this, you’ll be smiling even more, because this soup is even better the next day. I don’t know what it is about soups, but this is often the case. The flavors just settle in spectacularly by the next day.
Even though this makes a big pot of soup, it’s hard to actually have any leftovers the next day. Or maybe that’s just in my house where Jaye will have seconds thirds or fourths, you know, whatever is needed to polish off everything in the pot. He’s always up for that challenge.
What’s great about this soup is that it’s so simple, hearty and nourishing. You really do feel deeply nourished after a big bowl of this soup. Well, maybe not so surprising when you consider that everything in it is super healthy.
You do have to plan in advance that you want to make it, so you can pre-soak those beans (essential step). The beans need to soak overnight, so even though you soak 1 cup of beans, you end up with about 2.5 – 3 cups of soaked beans as they expand so much.
But once you’ve got your soaked beans ready the actual prep of this soup is super easy.
You will love this soup for how thick, nourishing, hearty, satisfying, healthy and comforting it is. You will love the rich color and texture, and the beautiful blend of healthy, nourishing flavors.
And if you love beans then you’ll also love our vegan refried beans, vegan black bean soup and our vegan baked beans.
How To Make Vegan Bean Soup
Full measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is just a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- The night before you want to make this soup, place a cup of pinto beans in a bowl and pour over cold water. Cover and leave them to soak overnight. Then rinse and drain before using in this recipe.
- Add olive oil to a pot with chopped onions, crushed garlic and dried rosemary and sauté until softened.
- Now add in water, pinto beans, chopped potatoes, chopped carrots and chopped tomato. Bring to the boil and then cover the pot, reduce heat and leave to simmer for around an hour until the beans and veggies are soft and cooked.
- Use an immersion blender to blend the soup directly in the pot. If you don’t have an immersion blender, then allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring in stages to your blender jug, blend it and then once it’s all blended return it to the pot.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
Recipe Tips
Soak the pinto beans overnight: This is an essential step in this soup, since we use dried pinto beans and if you don’t soak them first they take forever to cook.
Seasonings: Other than some dried rosemary, the only seasonings we used in this soup is salt and pepper. We also cook the soup in water instead of vegetable stock. So the end result can be quite bland unless you use enough salt and pepper. Add it to taste. However, if you are still experiencing it as fairly bland, then you likely just need to add more salt and/or pepper.
Serving Suggestions
Serve it with some delicious crusty bread on the side for dipping. Top it with some fresh chopped parsley and ground black pepper.
It makes a wonderful appetizer OR main course. If you serve up a filling portion with some bread on the side, it can be a meal on its own.
Storing and Freezing
This soup stores very well in the fridge for 3-4 days and can be reheated on the stove or in the microwave.
It is also freezer friendly if you’d like to freeze it.
More Hearty Vegan Soup Recipes
- Vegan Lentil Soup
- Vegan Black Bean Soup
- Vegan Minestrone Soup
- Vegan Corn Chowder
- Vegan Split Pea Soup
- Vegan Broccoli Cheese Soup
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Pinto Bean Soup
Ingredients
- 1 cup Dried Pinto Beans (200g) Soaked overnight
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 Large Onion White, Yellow or Brown
- 1 teaspoon Crushed Garlic
- 1 teaspoon Dried Rosemary
- 4 cups Water (960ml)
- 4 Medium Potatoes Peeled and Chopped
- 2 Large Carrots Diced
- 2 Medium Tomatoes Diced
- Salt and Pepper To Taste
Instructions
- The night before you want to make this soup, place a cup of pinto beans in a bowl and pour over cold water. Cover and leave them to soak overnight. Then rinse and drain before using in this recipe.
- Add olive oil to a pot with chopped onions, crushed garlic and dried rosemary and sauté until softened.
- Now add in water, pinto beans, chopped potatoes, chopped carrots and chopped tomato. Bring to the boil and then cover the pot, reduce heat and leave to simmer for around an hour until the beans and veggies are soft and cooked.
- Use an immersion blender to blend the soup directly in the pot. If you don’t have an immersion blender, then allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring in stages to your blender jug, blend it and then once it’s all blended return it to the pot.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
- Soak the pinto beans overnight: This is an essential step in this soup, since we use dried pinto beans and if you don’t soak them first they take forever to cook.
- Seasonings: Other than some dried rosemary, the only seasonings we use in this soup is salt and pepper. We also cook the soup in water instead of vegetable stock. So the end result can be quite bland unless you use enough salt and pepper. Add it to taste. However, if you are still experiencing it as fairly bland, then you likely just need to add more salt and/or pepper.
- Prep time does not include soaking the beans.
- This recipe was first published in February 2016.
What is the serving size you have the nutrition info for? I have had a huge bag of pinto beans for a long time that we bought from Costco and I have been wanting some go to recipes. Pinto beans aren’t my favorite but being vegan I’m looking for new and yummy ways to get my protein. I just made this soup and am loving it! It’s not overly “beany” if anything the potatoes come through more and it has almost a beef stew like taste that reminds me of what my mom made as a child. I think I’ll add celery next time and love the others suggestions to vary the flavors. Thank you for this delicious, simple and cost effective recipe!
Hi Erin, so happy you enjoyed it! Thanks for the great review! Regarding the nutrition info, it’s just based on the whole recipe divided by 4 servings, I haven’t weighed each serving size, so it’s an estimate. Nutrition info is always an estimate, for exact numbers it’s better to input your ingredients into your own nutrition software. 🙂
I’ve done the same as Sarah in the comments. I have made this twice so far and also have experimented with different flavors. It’s a fantastic base for seasoning with fresh herbs like rosemary, parsley, and basil, or giving it a spicy flavor like tacos or chili. Very versatile and it’s amazing for filling me up and keeping me that way so I don’t snack. Thank you!
Awesome Cynthia, so happy to hear that! Thanks for the wonderful review.
Thanks for this superb recipe. It makes a great base for any combination of spices. I’m a singleton, so I’ve ended up dividing the soup into different containers and adding different spice blends to each batch – a blend of taco seasonings works great! I don’t have an immersion blender or a regular blender, so I used a potato masher and crush up the veggies and stir vigorously after they’ve simmered for an hour or two – it makes for a very rustic, chunky soup instead of the smooth puree pictured, but it tastes excellent. Today I’m experimenting with parsnips instead of potatoes for the starch, since that’s what came in my CSA box. Excited to see how it turns out. Thank you again!
So happy to hear that Sarah! Thanks for the great review!