I start a lot of my vegetable soups with a ritualistic soaking of beans. The beans I favor these days are cannellini because they make soups creamier and they’re a nutritional powerhouse. I sometimes soak more than I need and freeze a portion of them to add to soups at a later time. And I’ll admit that there are a few times where I have to grab a can of beans.

Give me a moment to fan girl all the great things about cannellini beans, because I’m a huge fan. They contain an array of vitamins, including B, E, K, and folate (part of the vitamin B family). Then there’s all the minerals, including potassium, magnesium, and iron. To take full advantage of the iron in these white beans you need to also have vitamin C to aid in absorption, so I usually add tomatoes or a leafy green that has vitamin C. In this case, I added tomato paste to the broth, and the usual array of stock veggies, herbs, and aromatic (garlic). White beans are also rich in phenols, a strong anti-inflammatory, so another win on that front.

To get the beans really creamy, after they’ve soaked for at least 8 hours, I cook them again the Instant Pot. You don’t need an Instant Pot here, you can also cook them on the stovetop in a saucepan. I added a recipe below for making the beans creamier. If you’re cooking the beans for a while in the soup, then the extra cooking time will probably be enough to get the beans creamier.

For SCD, replace the cannelini beans with navy beans. Make sure to wash the beans after soaking them overnight. I know some don’t want to use beans from a can when following SCD, but if it contains no additives and is washed you may be able to handle them.