Butter Bean Soup

A butter bean is a creamy bean that originated in Peru. It’s used in cuisine from all around the world, and is commonly referred to as lima beans. You’ll also hear them referred to as butter peas, Madagascar beans, and Chad beans.

You might also hear people call this soup lima bean soup. 

Thanks to modern advances, we can eat butter beans, or lima beans, whenever we like. They come canned and dried so we can use them in our recipes at any time of the year. However, they are at their peak in fall. 

This is when you will have that fork tender bite that you know and love in butter bean soup. Plus in the fall, you can use it in your favourite recipes. 

Whether you’re using the latest recipes, or new recipes to you, you can’t go wrong when using butter beans.

Canned or fresh vegetables is an age old debate, and it is just as relevant when debating butter beans. Thankfully, for us, when making butter bean soup, it really doesn’t matter. 

If you have fresh butter beans that you want to use, great! They’ll taste wonderful. If you have canned butter beans in your pantry that you’ve been trying to incorporate into a recipe for months now, use them. 

This butter bean soup is going to cook down, so it really doesn’t matter whether you use dried beans that were stored in the pantry or the freezer for a couple months, or if you pop them out of their pod in the morning.

If you want to add some dimension to the soup, try using creamy butter beans. This adds flavour and is easy to make right alongside your butter bean soup.

Lucky for us, there aren’t many calories in butter bean soup. It’s healthy for a variety of reasons, including its relatively low calorie count!

If you’re in the mood for this tasty soup, you’ll only be consuming about 150 calories per bowl.

To make butter bean soup so delicious, you’ll need a few key ingredients:
Olive oil – You’ll need olive oil to cook down the leeks before adding the garlic, butter beans, and other ingredients.
Leeks – Leeks are the perfect addition to this butter bean soup recipe. They are sweet and have the flavour of an onion without actually using an onion.
Vegetable stock – Use vegetable stock instead of another liquid like water for greater flavour.

When making butter bean soup, make sure you are tending to your butter beans correctly. If you are using canned butter beans, make sure you drain the liquid and use drained butter beans instead. 

If you are using dried butter beans, make sure you cook them first. If you put dried butter beans in without them being cooked, it will affect the cook time and recipe steps.

No olive oil? No problem. Though you do need an oil to cook the leeks and the garlic, it doesn’t have to be olive oil necessarily. Avocado oil, sunflower seed oil, and even vegetable oil will suffice. 

Make sure that whatever oil you use, you are careful to look at the smoke point. You want to use an oil with a similar smoke point as whatever olive oil you are used to cooking with.

If you don’t have leeks, you can absolutely substitute something else. Shallots and any type of onion will both work as a substitute, as well chives, and even celery if you are really in a pinch.

If you don’t have cloves, you can use chives, shallots, or whatever type you do have. Whether you have powder or minced you bought at the store, they will all work fine. You could even use salt if you are really in a bind.

One of the reasons I love this butter bean soup recipe is because it is vegan and gluten free. However if you are not vegan, and you don’t have vegetable stock, you can substitute for chicken stock. 

The good news is that when you substitute chicken, the recipe still remains gluten free.

You can absolutely add to this gluten-free butter bean soup recipe. It is already swimming in beans, but you can add any veggies you’d like. Feel free to add carrots, potatoes, or even tomatoes to it. 

If you don’t have fresh tomatoes, adding a tomato puree or diced tomatoes will be great, as well. This is already a hearty soup, but adding veggies to it will make it even healthier. And adding those veggies will add nutrients while keeping it vegan.