A slowly simmering pot of beans is the definition of vegan comfort food. This brothy beans recipe is deep and rich with fairly simple ingredients. The beans get so silky! As with any time that we cook beans from scratch, it does take about 1.5 hours total to simmer. But this time is mostly inactive, requiring you to only pop over to the stovetop a couple times to stir and check on the vegetable stock level.
To make beans flavorful, I sautรฉ quartered onions, shallots, celery, sliced garlic, herbs, and spices as the base of the broth. Smoked paprika and ground chillies add nice depth along with thyme and oregano. Getting some light browning on the onions, shallots, and celery boosts the deliciousness as well. I also soak the beans ahead of time with some salt in the water, a tip that I learned from Serious Eats. This helps to ensure that the beans are well-seasoned. I finish these brothy white beans with miso to emphasize the umami, lemon juice to perk up the acidity, and fresh chopped herbs like dill and parsley.
What beans to use for brothy beans?
- For this recipe, I recommend any type of white bean. I used Ayacote Blanco beans here, and they were so tender and satisfying.
- Navy beans, cannellini beans (which are sometimes called white kidney beans), corona, or lima beans would all work.
- Cooking dried beans can vary quite a bit! There are so many factors that contribute to cooking time and how much vegetable stock youโll need! It really is a situation where itโs best to cook by feel and intuition with the recipe as a guide. I do give lots of clues in the recipe if itโs your first time.
To store leftover brothy beans, cool them thoroughly and transfer to a sealable container. These will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days or freezer for 6 months.
Fans of this recipe may also enjoy my (much faster) Creamy White Bean Soup with Kale. You could also make these into a brothy beans with greens type of situation! Chop up a small bunch of either kale, dandelion or mustard greens and add them at the end, simmering until the greens are wilted and soft.
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One-Pot Brothy Beans with Herbs & Lemon
Ingredients
- 1 lb white beans, soaked overnight with water to cover and 1 tablespoon of salt
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and quartered (keep the root intact)
- 2 shallots, peeled and quartered (keep the root intact)
- 1 stick celery, chopped into 3-4 big pieces
- 1 bay leaf
- 5 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
- 1 tablespoon thyme leaves, minced
- 1 tablespoon oregano leaves, minced
- ยฝ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ยฝ teaspoon ground chillies or chili flakes
- 6-12 cups vegetable stock (see notes)
- sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 ยฝ tablespoons light miso
- lemon juice, to taste (I like 1-2 tablespoons)
- handful of fresh dill or parsley, chopped
Notes
- I wound up using 12 cups of broth total for my pot of beans. This will vary depending on which beans youโre using, how long you soaked them, how old they are etc. I know thatโs not super precise, but thatโs just how beans are sometimes haha.
- I fish out the celery, bay leaf, and some of the bigger bits of onion at the end. But aside from that, I leave most of the onions in the pot because I like them. Of course, if you have the patience and strictly want to enjoy beans and broth, you can retrieve all of the bits.
- You can use dried herbs instead of freshโjust substitute 1 ยฝ teaspoons for both thyme and oregano.
Instructions
- I soak my beans overnight in lots of warm water with 1 tablespoon of salt dissolved in there! I learned this trick from Serious Eats. When youโre ready to cook the beans, drain and rinse them. Set aside.
- Heat a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Once itโs hot, pour in the oil and swirl it around. Place the quartered onions, shallots, and celery pieces into the pot. Let them brown lightly on one side and then stir/flip the pieces over. Keep cooking until all sides have a bit of a golden edge. This process should take about 10 minutes.
- Add the bay leaf, garlic, thyme, oregano, smoked paprika, and chillies. Stir and sautรฉ until very aromatic, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add the drained beans and stir. Then, add 6 cups of vegetable stock. Season with salt and pepper (being mindful of the salty miso we'll add at the end) and stir. Place the lid on top, slightly askew to vent a bit. Bring the beans to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer.
- Simmer the beans for about 1 ยฝ hours, checking in on them every 30 minutes or so. If the level of vegetable stock is getting low, just add more by the cup. Once your beans are super tender and silky, theyโre good to go. I like to taste 3-5 beans just to make sure that the whole batch is good. The batch I cooked here simmered for 1 hour and 45 minutes.
- Fish out the big pieces of celery, bay leaf, and as much of the onion/shallots as you like (I leave most of them).
- In a liquid measuring cup, combine the miso and a couple ladlefuls of the hot stock from the pot. Give the mixture a whisk to dissolve the miso and then pour that mixture into the pot. Stir. Check the beans for seasoning and adjust if necessary. Add lemon juice to taste and stir. Garnish the beans with the chopped dill/parsley.
- Serve the brothy beans hot with crusty bread and extra black pepper on top.
We made these with Rancho Gordo Buckeye Beans. Sooooooo good. This is the second batch and they came out perfect both times. We soaked for six hours w/kombu, no salt.
When the beans were added to the recipe we took it to a full boil for 10mins and then backed it to a simmer. Total time after the boil started was 1hr 40mims. So good.
The miso hunt was a little stressful since we donโt really cook with it, but we landed on โMuso Smart Misoโ (the brand) โLight Sweet Misoโ (the type). It seems to work really well for this recipe, at least for us. Just throwing that out there in case anyone has miso shopping anxiety.
Thank for this recipe, we really love it.
Hi Laura
I made this recipe exactly as described because I was looking for an alternate protein to have for lunch. These came out absolutely delicious!
Being summer here in Aus, one of the ways I eat them is to shred some lettuce, dice some red onion, celery and avocado, then grate some carrot. I simply add the beans on top cold or warm and my lunches are sorted. Similar to a burrito bowl.
So many ways to eat them and oh so tasty.
Thank you so much for sharing. :D
Hi, Iโm looking forward to making these! What type of salt do you use โ regular table or Kosher salt with the bigger grains?
Thanks!
Hi Lisa! Kosher salt is my go-to for these brothy beans and cooking in general :)
-L
The best recipe, my family loved it!
Oh my! This is my new favourite hearty winter dish. I usually made homemade broth from scraps and added star anise and szechuan peppercorn this time. Mmmmmmmmmmmm, thank you!
Iโve made this three times, with various dried white beans I had in the pantry. It is so, so good! It has the perfect amount of spices and flavor. The bean broth is delicious. While we could certainly use the beans in other recipes, weโve found that we prefer this straight out of the pot. Thank you for a wonderful recipe!
SO delicious! I donโt typically follow recipes to the letter but I did this one and Iโm so glad I did. I did add chopped spinach at the very end for added nutrition. Canโt wait to eat it leftover as Iโm sure itโll be even better next day.
These beans were so delicious. Absolutely a great recipe, thank you. Imagine I had all of these ingredients just sitting in my pantry and absolutely no idea how scrumptious they would be all together, who knew?
Wow wow wow! This was so delicious! I doubled it. Used great northern beans. Added cooked, chopped chaya leaves for some more green. My kids loved it too!
This was delicious! I had to amend, though, because of what I had/didnโt have:
1. I did not use a shallot, just onion
2. I only had chopped celery in the freezer, so I used that and left them in along with the onion to eat.
3. I did not have veg broth so I used homemade chicken broth
4. I added some porcini mushroom powder
I used dried navy beans and served over roasted spaghetti squash.
I have been searching for years for the best bean recipe, and have tried them all! Hello Rancho Gordo. I have to say, thank you to you, as I have now found bean nirvana!!!
THIS WAS AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS!!! The miso nailed it!!! Not to mention the herbs.
We are a big bean family so truly appreciate this recipe and you! We just finished RGโs lima beans over polenta (Epicurious) recipe in the oven, and honestly canโt think I can find a more satisfyingly delicious meal.
Simple and warming, yes, but rather bland. Itโs a disservice to remove the venerable rather than blend them in if itโs a texture issue. I ended up adding a picada for additional flavor
Just finished making these. The small sample I ate was delicious!! I donโt have miso on hand so I added a splash of soy sauce (as you mentioned in one of the comments).
I canโt wait to have these for dinnerโฆ.served over mashed potatoes :)
This is such a delicious recipe. Browning the vegetables first is genius. I found the exact miso you used and when all was done I had a very satisfied family! Used fresh chopped dill on top and served with French dinner rollsโฆ YUM!
Thank you so much!
Absolutely delicious. This recipe was a joy to make and it turned out to be some of the best beans Iโve ever had. I used mayocoba beans and I subbed the vegetable stock for homemade chicken bone broth (since Iโm not vegan). Served with homemade sourdough bread for dipping. Thanks for a simply fantastic recipe!
Excellent! Unbelievable taste and so easy. These will be included in our Thanksgiving meal. Thanks Laura!
These are incredible!!! And I didnโt even make them the proper way, I used already-cooked beans from the jar. So much flavour. Good in summer too, but I canโt wait to make them in winter.
This looks wonderful! Do you think dried chickpeas would work? I have trouble digesting a variety of legumes.
Hi Dana!
Dried chickpeas should work well in this recipe! Just as long as you soak them overnight.
-L
Adding to the list of go-to recipes for a cold winter night
Made this just now and loved it! Very filling as well.
Followed recipe as-is without modifications. Was absolutely delicious! The lemon and miso take the flavors over the tip.
This looks so good! Any idea how it would taste without the miso? I have all the other ingredients and am wondering if I can get away without it
Hi Ari,
The miso provides a lot of umami-rich and deep flavour for these beans. If you have soy sauce of any kind on hand, I would recommend finishing the beans with a splash of that to make up for the miso. Of course you can make the beans without either, but the taste will be a bit lighter and more subtle.
-L
Mmmmmmm, so good on a cold winterโs night . I followed the recipe and ended up using 9 cups of broth. I soaked my beans for a long time so they cooked faster.
Made these and they were extremely tasty, flavorful and rich. Perfect way to get more veggies, protein and fiber. Followed the recipe exactly, using more broth to help thin out the base.
I could only find Lima beans which are larger than ayocotes which I think resulted in a much thicker sauce โ not sure if itโs because the limas soaked up more liquid or because I didnโt add enough broth.
This sounds delicious! Couple questions:
I have a sensitive belly in the house thatโs having a hard time with any spice in recipes (which is hard for us as we used to eat spicy things *all* the time). Is there a substitute you recommend in place of chili flakes that doesnโt involve heat?
Any changes in cooking directions for a slow cooker and/or canned beans?
Excited to try this regardless!
Iโm also interested in a modification using canned beans. Thank you! This sounds wonderful!
Hi Esther,
You can simply leave the chili flakes out. The recipe as written would be quite flavourful without them!
I would not recommend making these in a slow cooker because most of the flavour comes from browning the onions/celery/spices in the pot and then stirring up the brown bits in the pot with a bit of stock. Itโs just fussier doing it this way in my opinion. To accomplish this in a slow cooker, youโd have to do the sautรฉ step on the stove, add a splash of stock to deglaze the pan, and then transfer that to your slow cooker with the drained beans. Cover the beans with stock by about 2-4 inches and then set the cooker to low for about 5-6 hours. I would start checking in on them at the 3 hour mark though. Once theyโre done, you can add more stock if you want them more brothy, and then follow through with the miso, lemon and herbs. Please keep in mind that I havenโt done this myself so I canโt guarantee results.
To use canned beans, you will need about 7-8 cups of cooked beans total. I would start with 6 cups of broth still and add more if you need to. Canned beans would only need to simmer for 20-30 minutes. Theyโll be tasty, but not as flavourful or with the same texture as the dried ones.
-L
This was absolutely delicious, and so simple to put together. My beans took forever to cook, but the end result was worth it. This is going into the regular rotation for sure!
I never have commented on anything online, but I just tasted these and they are the best beans I have ever had in my life! Thanks for an amazing recipe!
Wow!!! I used royal corona beans from Rancho Gordo which turned this dish into a meal in a bowl. Thank you Laura. Donโt know where Iโd be without you and The First Mess blog xoxo
This recipe is absolutely amazing. I used large white beans (unfortunately no access to Rancho Gordo beans here in Germany), which needed a total of 9 cups of water and a total of 3 hours of cook time despite having been soaked overnight. I donโt think they were the freshest. Regardless, the flavours are a dream, and this recipe will be my standard go to for now.
Divine, my new fav bean recipe.
I found these to be delicious! I used Rancho Gordo royal corona beans, rich homemade vegetable stock, dried herbs (since I find them to be more flavorful), and I chopped the vegetables and left them all in the soup.
This is a delicious recipe and Iโm so glad for it!! It has ample seasoning and an easy put together through the use of big veg pieces vs. small dice so the pot was on its way quickly. The result is so beautifully tasty โ the beans are luxuriously soft and brimming with flavor. Not to mention the glorious image of the simple bean surrounded by broth & herbs โ I left the veg in place since that suited me better. We served over rice and it was simply wonderful; will make this on repeat! Thanks so much for this WINNER of a recipe.
Looks delicious! I wonder if there is a way to adapt this to the instant pot?
Hi Sam!
I think you definitely could. I would use the Sautรฉ function to cook the base (up to step 3). Once the beans and 6 cups of stock are added. Iโd seal it up and pressure cook for anywhere between 30-60 minutes (depending on what beans you useโyou might have to do some Googling). Then Iโd let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes before manually releasing. From there, you can proceed with adding the miso, lemon and herbs!
-L
Perfect timing. I am expecting a delivery of Rancho Gordo beans today.
Lucky you! Hope you enjoy.
-L