Are you a smooth blended soup person, or a leave it chunky soup person? For myself, I’m still deciding because this creamy roasted garlic and parmesan white bean soup is delicious both ways.
If I’m being honest, I usually serve this soup only half blended to get the best of both worlds. The blended white beans become ultra creamy but a few chunks of veggies here and there make give it some texture.
This half-blended version is also the best in terms of dishes and effort. I use my immersion blender right in the pot of soup and it is easier to clean than the entire blender and you don’t have to transfer the soup into the blending pitcher.
If you want an insanely smooth and creamy soup, go for it, but don’t try to use the immersion blender. It takes way too long to be able to achieve the ultimate smoothness in comparison to transferring it to the separate blender.
Tip and Tricks for the Creamy Roasted Garlic and Parmesan White Bean soup:
- Roasting the garlic takes longer than the rest of the soup, so I start that before doing any of my vegetable chopping and other prep work.
- The parmesan rind adds great umami flavor to the base of the soup. Sometimes it will kind of melt away and cannot be removed after cooking, but that’s ok because the rind is edible. If you cant find it, just blend it in.
- Not all Parmesans are vegetarian. Look for one that does not use rennet. There are plenty to choose from, here is a good list.
- To blend in the roasted garlic, remove a little soup and blend it separately. This ensure all the garlic gets blended smoothly, especially if you are not blending the entire soup like me. I prefer it about half blended and don’t want a whole clove of garlic in one bite!
- 1 large head garlic
- 2 TBS olive oil, plus a splash for the roasted garlic
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 3 oz parmesan cheese block with rind, divided
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- ¼ tsp red pepper flake
- 2 15-oz can white beans, such as great northern or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 3 TBS half and half
- 1 TBS fresh lemon juice
- Cut the top ½ inch off the top of the garlic head. Place it on a small sheet of foil, drizzle with olive oil and wrap it up tight. Roast it in the oven at 400 F for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown and soft. Let it cool 15 minutes before handling.
- Meanwhile, saute onion and celery over low heat in olive oil until soft and translucent, about 10-15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, grate about 3 oz parmesan off the block, leaving the rind intact. Reserve the shredded parmesan cheese and the rind.
- Add the bay leaf, Italian seasoning, red pepper flake, white beans, parmesan rind and broth to the pot with the onion mixture. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Unwrap the foil from the garlic and squeeze the cloves out of the head.
- Remove the bay leaf and parmesan rind from the soup. Transfer approximately one cup of soup to bowl or cup with the roasted garlic cloves and use an immersion blender to blend until smooth. Add the cup of soup, half-and-half and lemon juice and blend in the pot until your reach your desired consistency. I like mine about half blended.
- Serve topped with the reserved shredded parmesan cheese.
Recipe adapted from Eating Well.
