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4.67 from 6 votes

Bone Broth Vegetable Soup Recipe (with Beans)

A hearty and healthy bone broth vegetable soup, Romanian-style, with white beans, bacon, and tarragon.
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time2 hours
Total Time2 hours 30 minutes
Course: Soup
Cuisine: Romanian
Servings: 4 -6
Calories: 276kcal
Author: Adina

Ingredients

  • 1 ¼ cup white beans 250 g
  • 2 onions divided
  • 3 bay leaves divided
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 small piece celeriac or 2 celery sticks
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 3.5 oz bacon cubes 100 g
  • 2-4 potatoes depending on size
  • 2 cups bean cooking water 500 ml, Note 1
  • 4 cups good quality beef bone broth or good regular beef broth, 1 liter
  • 1 heaped teaspoon dry tarragon Note 2
  • 1 teaspoon dry lovage
  • 1 teaspoon dry savory
  • 1-3 tablespoons white wine vinegar to taste
  • fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

  • Cook beans: Rinse the beans and place them in a large bowl. Cover with water and leave to soak overnight. Rinse again, place in a large pot, cover with plenty of water, add only 1 halved onion and 2 of 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.
  • Chop the second onion finely. Next, chop the carrot, celeriac/celery sticks, and red bell pepper into small cubes.
  • Saute: Heat the oil in a large soup pot. Add the bacon cubes and fry gently until they render their fat. Add the vegetables and cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes until they start to soften.
  • 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.
  • Adjust the taste with salt, pepper, and white wine vinegar (Note 3).

Notes

  1. If you don't have any bean cooking broth, 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.
  2. I pickle tarragon leaves every summer, but as I assume that most of you don't do that, use dry or fresh tarragon for the soup and white wine vinegar to sour the soup. If you are using pickled tarragon, leave out the dry one and add the finely chopped pickled tarragon at the end of the cooking process. Use the pickling vinegar to sour the soup.
  3. If using pickled tarragon, chop it finely and add it to the soup now together with some of the pickling vinegar. 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 vinegar.

Nutrition

Serving: 1/6 of the dish | Calories: 276kcal | Carbohydrates: 35g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 17mg | Sodium: 1135mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 4g