Slow Cooker Tuscan White Bean Soup with Sausage

Make your family feel warm and cozy around the dining table tonight: Serve this Sausage Tuscan White Bean Soup – made in the crock pot for easy dinner prep!

There’s so much flavor in this simple recipe from the vegetables, sausage and beans! This soup is tomato based, filled with healthy vegetables and so hearty and rustic – the perfect dinner to warm you up on cold fall and winter days.

For more soup recipes, see my Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup, Pasta Fagioli Soup or Creamy Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup!

There’s not much I love more than a warming soup on a cold day!

My kids generally prefer broth-y soups over creamy blended soups, so things like this Tuscan White Bean Soup are right up our alley.

Even better with the Italian sausage and orzo pasta – two surefire ways to get the kids to eat their dinner (even on the nights I accidentally give them the wrong colored spoon…)

And there’s something in it for us busy moms, too: It’s SO easy to prep, and then it cooks all day in your crockpot – perfect for those super busy nights.

This Slow Cooker Tuscan White Bean Soup with Sausage

• is filled with healthy ingredients
• is quick and easy to prep and then cooks by itself in your crock pot all day
• makes for a hearty meal on a cold fall or winter night

The older my kids are getting, the less time I seem to have to make dinner. There’s projects to be completed, ABCs to be learned and sibling fights to be endured.

And the less time I have around 5pm, the more I rely on recipes for my slow cooker. Things like my all-time favorite Slow Cooker Chili, my Slow Cooker Tuscan White Bean Chicken Stew or my Crock Pot Beef Stew.

I’ll basically make dinner while the kids are busy in the morning and then won’t have to think about it for the rest of the day. Pretty good mom hack in my books.

How to Make this Slow Cooker Tuscan White Bean Soup with Sausage:

Read on for the detailed steps, or scroll down for how to make this recipe on the stove, how to freeze it, more tips to make this recipe foolproof and the printable recipe card.

► 1 Prep: I like to get all the chopping work out of the way before I start making this soup. I recommend dicing the onion, carrot and celery fairy small, so they cook evenly and are sized to easily be eaten as part of a soup. The green pepper should be cut slightly larger, or it will completely fall apart during cooking.

► 2 Brown Sausage: For great flavors, you’re going to brown the sausage and vegetables before adding them to the crock. Add the sausage to a skillet and cook until browned, then remove to the crock. Add the prepared onion, garlic, carrots and celery to the skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes.

► 3 Start Soup: Stir tomato paste and seasoning into the vegetables. Pour white whine (or broth) over the vegetables, scraping the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Take off the heat.

► 4 Slow Cook: Add all prepared ingredients to a 5-6 quart slow cooker, along with broth, tomato sauce and canned tomatoes ( I used whole fire roasted cherry tomatoes because they taste amazing and look great in the soup), the diced green pepper, rosemary sprigs and roasted red peppers.

Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or on HIGH for 3-4 hours.

► 5 Add Finishing Touches: Once the cooking time is up, stir in the white beans, orzo and baby spinach. Cook for another 15 minutes on HIGH, then serve right away.

Tips for This Slow Cooker Tuscan White Bean Soup

• Switch it up: This is a recipe you can customize so easily – I do it all the time. I vary the meat, the noodles, the beans, the veggies – sometimes I blend part of the beans to make it creamier. That way I don’t need to reinvent the wheel for dinner every week, yet we don’t repeat the exact same meal all the time.
• Skip the browning: If you’re in a hurry, you can skip the browning part. Just leave out the wine or extra broth! Add all ingredients to the slow cooker and cook it as directed in the recipe. There will be a little less flavor but it will still be delicious.

How to make this soup on the stove:

Just follow the directions in the recipe, using a large soup pot instead of a skillet.

Instead of transferring everything to a slow cooker, add everything to the soup pot and simmer for 30-60 minutes with the lid on.

Add the orzo pasta and spinach and simmer for around 10 minutes, or until the pasta is done.

How to make this soup dietary friendly:

Make it vegetarian and vegan: Leave out the sausage and add two cans of beans instead of one when directed in the recipe. Use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.

Make it gluten free: Use gluten free pasta OR leave it out and stir in cooked rice right before serving. Make sure all your other ingredients are certified gluten free!

How to freeze this soup:

If you plan on freezing the soup, I recommend making it without the orzo and spinach. The spinach will wilt too much and the pasta would turn mushy.

Simply leave them out, cool the soup and then freeze it in portions. When you’re reheating, simply cook some orzo separately and stir it into the soup with some fresh spinach once the soup is piping hot.

When freezing a recipe, always remember:

• make sure to use containers or bags suitable for freezing
• label with the name and use-by date (freeze for up to 3 months)
• reheat until piping hot all the way through before serving

What to Serve with Sausage Tuscan White Bean Soup:

A hearty soup doesn’t really need much on the side, but here are some of our favorite breads and baked goods to mop up all the delicious broth:

• Honey Butter Cornbread
• No Knead Bread
• Mini Garlic Parmesan Monkey Breads

Any other sides you love with soup? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear!

P.S: If you tried this recipe, why not leave me a comment below to let me know how you liked it?

Printable recipe

This post was first published as Slow Cooker Tuscan White Bean Soup with Sausage on FoodFanatic.