Bone Broth Vegetable Soup

4.67 from 6 votes

This bone broth vegetable soup with white beans, bacon, and tarragon is a comforting, warming soup for cold days.

Prep Time30

Cook Time2

Total Time2 30

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Romanian

Servings: servings

Calories: 250kcal

Author: Adina

Soak beans: Rinse the beans and place them in a large bowl. Cover them with water and soak them overnight. Rinse them again, place them in a large pot, and cover them with plenty of water.
1 ¼ cup white beans/ 250 g
Cook the beans: Add the halved onion and the bay leaves, and bring to a boil. Cook for about 1 hour or until the beans are soft. The cooking time will depend on the size and age of the beans, so keep checking. Drain the beans, but keep the cooking water. Discard the onion and the bay leaves.
1 onion + 2 bay leaves

Chop the onion finely and dice the carrot, celeriac/celery sticks, and red bell pepper.
1 onion + 1 carrot + 1 small piece celeriac + 1 red bell pepper
Saute: Heat the oil in the pot. Add the chopped bacon and cook it gently until it renders the fat. Add the vegetables and cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes until they start to soften.
1 tablespoon vegetable oil + 3.5 oz bacon / 100 g
Simmer: In the meantime, chop the potatoes into small cubes. Add the potatoes to the soup, stir for about 2 minutes more, then add the cooking water from the beans and the beef bone broth. Add all the dried herbs and the cooked beans. Cover and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer gently until all the vegetables are soft (check the potatoes), about 20 minutes or so.
2-4 potatoes + 2 cups bean cooking water/ 500 ml + 4 cups beef bone broth/ 1 liter + beans + 1 teaspoon dried tarragon + 1 teaspoon dried lovage + 1 teaspoon dried thyme + 1 bay leaf
Adjust the taste with salt, pepper, and white wine vinegar (Note 4).
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper + 1-3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

Beans: Alternatively, you can use canned beans, about 2-3 cans or 1.5 oz/ 650-700 g.
Bean cooking broth: If you don't have any, use more beef bone broth. If you have more bean cooking broth, you can use it all for the soup and adjust the beef broth quantity accordingly.
Broth: You can also use regular beef broth to make this soup.
Pickled tarragon: I pickle tarragon leaves every summer, but as I assume that most of you don't do that, use dried or fresh tarragon for the soup and white wine vinegar to sour the soup. If you are using pickled tarragon, leave out the dried tarragon and add the finely chopped pickled tarragon at the end of the cooking process. Use the pickling vinegar to sour the soup. Start with one tablespoon, taste the soup, and continue adding more, a little at a time, until the soup tastes to your liking. I do like mine rather sour, so I sometimes end up adding 4 or 5 tablespoons of vinegar.