Cajun Bean Soup – Pantry Meals

It’s soup season. Which means A big ole helping of fragrant and warming Cajun Bean Soup. I define soup season as any time outside of swimming pool season. Too cold for a swim? Eat some soup to warm yourself up because it must be freezing outside. Probably snowing, too. 

Even better is that this full of Southern flavors easy Bean Soup has minimal prep and is made entirely with budget friendly pantry staples so you can quickly whip it up for weeknight suppers, impromptu lunches and more. 

Using canned beans and frozen veggies makes this an easy pantry meal that you will come back to again and again. Of course, make it with fresh veggies if you have those and prefer them.  I keep this version mild because of the kids but you can add in some hot sauce to your taste.

Why You’ll Love This Easy Cajun Soup

• It is made from everyday pantry staples and super budget friendly.
• Assemble ahead for a freezer-friendly meal.
• It has plenty of protein and will keep you full for hours.
• Feed a crowd by just doubling or tripling the recipe.
• It is vegan and gluten free.

Tools Needed

• Saucepan.
• An awesome slow cooker.
• Handy cups and teaspoons for measuring.
• Olive oil.
• Sea salt flakes.

Ready to learn just how easy and fun it is to make this Vegan Bean Soup recipe? Gather up your ingredients and I will show you….. 

How To Make Bean Soup 

1. Sautée the onions, peppers and celery or crushed celery seed in a pan with olive oil over medium heat for about 5-6 mins until the onions and peppers soften.
2. Stir in garlic and fry for 30 secs until fragrant. Then mix in your spices and cornstarch until the onion mix is well-coated.
3. Add the hot broth straight into the saucepan followed by the rest of the ingredients.
4. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes before serving your Bean Soup.

That’s it – you’re done.

How Make Slow Cooker Bean Soup

1. Sautée the onions, peppers and celery or crushed celery seed in a pan with olive oil over medium heat for about 5-6 mins until the onions and peppers soften.
2. Stir in garlic and fry for 30 secs until fragrant. Then mix in your spice and cornstarch until the onion mix is well-coated.
3. Place the spiced onion mix in your slow cooker, followed by the vegetable broth, beans and sweetcorn.
4. Cover and cook on high heat for 3.5-4 hours.

When you’re done eating, celebrate soup season, full bellies and slow cookers. (Balloons optional but highly recommended.)

Recipe Tips

•  
• Feel free to add (small) defrosted frozen carrots to bulk this out some more. Just add them about halfway through cooking.
• You can add some heat with hot sauce, chilis or jalapeño.
• Remove and mash up a few beans and add them back in if you want a thicker soup.

Bean Soup Recipe Variations

• Vary the beans. Feel free to swap out black eyes beans for navy beans, great northern beansm kidney beans or pinto beans (your soup, your beans).
• Vary the seasonings. You can add use seasoning like Creole seasoning, Fajita Seasoning and any other homemade seasoning you like.
• Add in some meat. You can add in meat if not vegan, such as smoked sausage f you want to keep it cajun style. Also add in chicken breast to keep it low in calories, leftover ham, chorizo, bacon and smoked turkey.
• Add in some tomatoes – feel free to replace a little of the broth with some diced tomatoes.
• Add in some heat – You an add in some hot sauce or cayenne pepper if you prefer.

Celery and Celery Seed

This is meant to be an easy pantry meal with items you already have. If you have fresh celery then go ahead and use it. You may have some frozen celery too, which will have lost its crispness but you can add that in too.

Alternatively you can add in a pinch of ground celery seed. Please do not be tempted to add in more than a pinch and do not add in whole celery seeds either.

Make Ahead and Meal Prep

Prep Ahead – Make ahead and refrigerate for up to 3 days in an airtight container.

Save Time – Turn Into A Dump and Start Recipe. Skip the onions, and add defrosted peppers and everything into the slow cooker and cook till done.

Freeze It

• Let the soup cool down, then transfer into these very handy Ziploc freezer bags.
• Squeeze out all the extra air and seal the bags.
• Label the bags and then lay them flat in the freezer.
• Store the soup in the freezer for up to 3 months.
• Tip => Freeze in meal sized portion and only defrost what you want.

Thaw It

• Remove the soup from the freezer the night before needed and let it thaw in the fridge.
• For a faster thaw, you can place the soup into a microwave and thaw according to the microwave’s instructions.

More Soup Recipes

Want more soup recipes? Then check out these below:

• Instant Pot Goulash Soup (Hungarian) recipe.
• Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup,
• Low Carb Instant Pot Cauliflower soup.
• Kale Soup from Veggie Desserts.
• Instant Pot Beef Stew.
• Jamaican Pumpkin Soup.

More Easy Southern Recipes

• Southern Butter beans.
• Corn Pudding Casserole.
• Shrimp Po Boy.
• Creole Hasselback Potatoes.

Weight Watchers Points 

There are 3 Blue Plan SmartPoints in one serving this Cajun Soup.

Thank you for reading my Crockpot Bean Soup recipe post. And please come visit again as I continue to slice, dice and dream up affordable Air Fryer recipes, Instant Pot Recipes, Southern Recipes and more. Thanks for supporting Recipes from a Pantry, food blog.

Originally published Nov 2017. Updated May 2020

Get the Spicy Bean Soup recipe