This soup takes advantage of canned cannellini beans, but feel free to adjust and use dry beans. The addition of Italian sausage is completely optional.
I recently made a similar recipe (with carrots and onions and no meat) but the main difference (as a flavor enhancer) was fennel seed. If you thought this soup was a little bland, try 1 to 2 tsp. of fennel seed and tsp. each of dried oregano and basil. It really works well with the fennel bulb and cannellini beans.
Read MoreI was excited about the promise of this recipe, simple to make and looks wonderful on a cold winter night. I always follow a recipe exactly on the first attempt but my family agrees that there needs to be far more spicing. The sausage is too bland, and the truffle salt? Forget spending extra money on something "fancy"- I'm sorry I did- because it added nothing to the soup flavor. The thyme is wonderful but you can't overwhelm the soup with that being the exclusive flavor. Perhaps hot sausage or your own favorite spice combinations would even this out. I would also add 2 bulbs of fennel or an onion if you can't get the fennel. My last comment is purely our personal tastes...when we see creamy soup as a recipe, we assume it is going to have a slightly thicker body to it. This was very watery, perhaps because you don't cook things down in an instant pot, all the water just goes right back into the dish as you are opening the pot. I think cooking this down in a pot afterwards would help with this situation but then you are adding all the time back on that the Instant Pot is supposed to save! This is a great idea, just fell short with us.
Read MoreI recently made a similar recipe (with carrots and onions and no meat) but the main difference (as a flavor enhancer) was fennel seed. If you thought this soup was a little bland, try 1 to 2 tsp. of fennel seed and tsp. each of dried oregano and basil. It really works well with the fennel bulb and cannellini beans.
Great hot soup for a cold night. It may be a little bland for some folks. I used chili flakes and some umami salt mix to zip it up a bit for us. Worth doing. Easy. By the way, I cooked ours on the stove for 30 minutes, then added the blended bean mixture and cooked for about 15 more.
I don't have a hot pot so I adapted the recipe by browning off the sausage, substituted 2 cups of diced onions, carrots, and celery for 2 cans of cannellini beans, added to the sausage, followed by the fennel, and served with Parmesan shavings. Fabulous!
I love this! Added fresh toasted anise seed on top. Found cannellini beans dry at my local Indian market. This will totally cut down on cost compared to canned
Delicious. You did reduce the amount of sausage for health reasons and used fennel seed instead of fresh because I couldn’t find the bulb in the store. Loved it and you can improvise I think and it will still be delicious
Great idea. I changed a few things. I made 1/3 amt. I used one hot Italian sausage casing removed. Browned in 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp unsalted butter along with one medium leek thinly sliced no green stems. Added 1 clove minced garlic when sausage lightly browned and leek semi translucent and 1 cup fresh spinach leaves. After one minute added 1/2 can of rinsed white great northern beans. Mashed remaining 1/2 can of beans in 1/2 co unsalted chicken stock and added to mixture with 1/2 tsp thyme, stirred then added 2 cups chicken stock and let simmer for 30 minutes. Let rest for 15 minutes. Great soup.
As I do not have an Instant Pot , I made it in my regular soup pot on the stove and had to adjust the time accordingly . It's not as flavorful as I expected.
This is a great soup. I make it all the time now, and do NOT use and Insta-Pot or pressure cooker. Just do it on the Stove. No alterations needs, except perhaps reduce the salt, and add more to taste if needed.
My family loved this soup! We added extra sausage, potatoes diced up and some onion - and it really enhanced the flavor - you can do so much with this soup - even add bacon crisps!!
I used ham instead of sausage (because that's what I had). I don't have an Instant Pot so made it on my stove. It is truly delicious.
Delicious, quick and fool-proof. Very flavorful with a few simple ingredients. My family absolutely loved it, and I will make it again. I added a very small splash of heavy cream to finish, just because I had it on hand, but I'm sure it would be just as delicious without it.
I used home butchered sausage, and added home canned potatoes and carrots to this recipe . I didn’t have a blender but used my Ninja smoothie maker to purée beans. Super easy and delish!
I loved this soup! I used 16oz. ground turkey Italian sausage in place of the links. Also used about 1/2 tsp. dried thyme and put it in with the meat, beans, fennel. No other changes. It was really delicious and easy. I do have an InstaPot but I think this recipe would easily convert to a pot on the stove, just adjust cooking times a little.
I made this the other night using a veggie sausage substitute. I cant have meat or pork so that is why the substitution. I would imagine the real sausage would add more flavor. Used some basil and oregano to add flavor. It seemed a little bland but the fennel helped my stomach immensely so i will make this again..
I made this on the stove in a regular soup pan. I added carrots. This tasted even better on the second day. I really like the unique flavor the fennel adds.
Definitely will make this Again! My husband liked it. Think I would add some shredded carrots next time for color and texture.
I was excited about the promise of this recipe, simple to make and looks wonderful on a cold winter night. I always follow a recipe exactly on the first attempt but my family agrees that there needs to be far more spicing. The sausage is too bland, and the truffle salt? Forget spending extra money on something "fancy"- I'm sorry I did- because it added nothing to the soup flavor. The thyme is wonderful but you can't overwhelm the soup with that being the exclusive flavor. Perhaps hot sausage or your own favorite spice combinations would even this out. I would also add 2 bulbs of fennel or an onion if you can't get the fennel. My last comment is purely our personal tastes...when we see creamy soup as a recipe, we assume it is going to have a slightly thicker body to it. This was very watery, perhaps because you don't cook things down in an instant pot, all the water just goes right back into the dish as you are opening the pot. I think cooking this down in a pot afterwards would help with this situation but then you are adding all the time back on that the Instant Pot is supposed to save! This is a great idea, just fell short with us.
I made this last night and it was so delicious. Skipped fennel since the hubby is not a fan, but I would've like it. It was so creamy and tasty! I kept getting more bread to dip into it! Yum...this is a keeper. Thanks.
This is an insta-pot/pressure cooker version of one of many types of white bean soups. Very easy to adjust, make and modify to taste. Basically, sweat aromatics (mirepoix), add desired herbs/spices, canned beans, and broth, simmer....and use an immersion blender to desired consistency. Make it brothy and add potatoes or add ham, so many possibilities.
Delicious and very easy to make. Was surprised it used an insta pot but that worked out very well. Made my own salt using dried wild mushrooms
Very nice tasty soup. You don't need an instapot (whatever that is); just simmer for 30 mins or so. I used butter beans instead of canellinis and some finally chopped salami instead of the sausage, simply because they were available. Would certainly make again.
I have never made a bean soup before and I absolutely loved this! I have no idea where to purchase truffle salt so I just skip that step completely, and instead of sausage I did do a smoked beef and everything worked out divinely. I paired it with some garlic bread and red wine. I’ve never been so content in my life.
This was very good and incredibly simple! We added some hot Italian sausage and dressed it with La Tur cheese instead of olive oil. YUM!
Delicious! My kids ate it too! Skipped the sausage and substituted vegetable broth for chicken broth to make it vegetarian.
This recipe was delicious. I did make some adjustments to make it vegetarian and thus added some additional flavoring to compensate. I wasn’t sure how much 1 fennel bulb was and I had quite a large one so I only used 1 cup freshly minced fennel 2 cups vegetable broth into IP (instead of 1–for a total of 4 cups of vegetable broth) 3 beyond meat brats (vegetarian) 1/2 tsp onion powder 1 cup chopped carrots 1/2 tsp dried Thyme instead of fresh
Absolutely delicious! I followed the suggestions of one of the other reviewers and added basil, oregano and fennel seeds. I used vegetarian Italian sausage and cooked on the stove. I will definitely put this one in my regular rotation. Thank you so much for sharing.
I loved it. I added a small amount of ham, one teaspoon fennel seed. Also I sauteed with the bulb fennel one-half chopped onion.
This soup is delicious and easy to prepare. I used a half pound each of sweet Italian sausage and hot Italian sausage. Will add spinach or kale next time.
I made it the "traditional" stove top method. A very nice subtle flavor. This was my first time using fennel. Definitely a keeper.
Love this soup! I, too, made it on the stovetop and it was great! The only change I made, after reading other reviews, was to use hot Italian sausage for a bit more heat and flavor. Excellent recipe!
I made this on my stovetop since idi not have a pressure cooker. I used canned cannelloni beans. It is delicious. The fresh thyme and truffle salt add a lot of flavor.
I made it in a pot on my stove. Delicious, but used more broth. It was a little too salty, so I would omit the salt and then season to your taste!
This recipe was delicious, I tweeked it with chicken sausage and added chopped carrots. The family loved it as our apitizer before dinner.
It was bland. The fennel couldn’t carry flavoring the beans by itself. The thyme did help, but had to add more. I’ll try it again with onion and celery added. Total waste of time and resources to break out the Instant Pot for 5 Min on canned beans. A little too watery for me
