This white bean tortellini soup recipe is different; it can be made at the last minute so it's great for a quick lunch or dinner.
While I love simmer-all-day-in-the-crockpot soups, sometimes you just need to fix something quick!
I made the chicken stock from scratch this time, which takes awhile, but that isn't necessary! Since I had a chicken carcass in the refrigerator I made my own chicken stock first.
But it's perfectly acceptable (and much faster) to open a jar of homemade, home-canned broth or use canned broth from the market.
Or you can use vegetable stock instead, if you prefer. Soup is very forgiving.
To make the chicken stock - this is the optional step, so you can skip down the post if you'd rather - I put the chicken bones in the slow cooker the night before, added a bag of onion skins, carrot peels and celery leaves from the freezer (I save those things for stock-making), and covered it all with water.
I let it cook all night long, and strained out the solids in the morning. It made 2 3/4 quarts (11 cups) of stock. I used 3 cups in the soup, poured the rest into Ziploc freezer bags - 2 cups in each one - and put them in the freezer for another day.
See this post if you'd like to can your homemade chicken stock. It's worth it!
Ok, now that we have broth, on to the soup.
How to make white bean and tortellini soup
Chop a small onion, then melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a heavy pan. Sauté the onion until softened. Next add the minced garlic, salt and pepper, and cook for a few more minutes.
Don't let the minced garlic burn - it cooks very quickly.
To make it a bit thicker, add a tablespoon of flour and stir it all together.
Add 3 tablespoons of tomato paste or leftover spaghetti sauce and the paprika.
Tomato paste would be fine, but I didn't want to open a can for that little bit, so leftover spaghetti sauce came to the rescue.
Next add the chopped spinach and let it wilt in the heat.
Spinach pretty much disappears into nothing when you cook it. You might want to add more than you think you want in your soup, because it won't look like much when the soup is finished.
Add three cups of chicken stock and a quart of chopped tomatoes.
You can use a quart of home-canned tomatoes if you have them, or a can of crushed or stewed tomatoes.
At the end of the summer I'd tossed all my washed tomatoes into zipper bags and stuck them in the freezer "to can later". With all that's been going on, I haven't gotten it done yet, so I used one of those freezer bags.
Just run those frozen tomatoes under hot water from the kitchen faucet and the skin will loosen almost immediately. It's very easy to peel off the skin - like magic!
Then I chopped up the tomatoes. They filled up my quart measuring cup, and I poured it all into the pot.
Next add two cans of drained and rinsed cannellini beans. I imagine any white bean will do.
I can kidney beans regularly; white beans would be just as easy, so you could use two pints of home-canned beans if you have them.
If you do can beans, you must use a pressure canner; you can't water bath can them.
The final step
The final step is to add the tortellini, either fresh-made, dried or frozen - just don't use pre-cooked pasta - it will get mushy.
Cook pasta according to package directions; the directions on the package I used said ten minutes. You don't want to overcook it so that it gets mushy.
Since I was making this to eat for lunch over the next several days, I didn't add the whole package of tortellini; instead I'll add some to each serving as I heat it for lunch.
Variations
How about adding some croutons? Or grated cheese? Or all of the above?
I thought the star of the dish would be the tortellini, but honestly it's the tomatoes. They taste like summer and the soup even smells like fresh tomatoes. Your mileage may vary on that if you use commercially-canned tomatoes though, and tortellini will be glad to take the limelight.
White Bean Tortellini Soup
2 Tbsp butter
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
1 tsp paprika
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 quart of canned tomatoes (or 1 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes)
2 cans of cannellini or other white beans, drained and rinsed
3 cups chicken stock
8 ounces fresh spinach, roughly chopped
8 ounces of cheese tortellini, fresh, dry or frozen
Melt butter in a heavy pan on medium heat. Add onion and sauté until softened. Add garlic, salt, pepper and paprika; sauté for a few additional minutes.
Add a tablespoon of flour, stir to coat. Add tomato paste and use a whisk to combine.
Add the chopped spinach and cook just long enough for the spinach to wilt. Add chicken stock, canned tomatoes and drained cannellini beans.
Raise the heat a bit and add the tortellini, cooking according to package directions. Don't overcook.
Spoon into bowls and if desired, add grated cheese and/or croutons.
More soup recipes
You'll find more soup recipes in my soup recipes collection here. How about some delicious broccoli and cheddar cheese soup? It's the Chief's favorite!
There are a dozen soup recipes in this post too.
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