Chicken and leek barley soup
A warm chicken soup with soft leeks, carrots and pearl barley.
About 55 min · 405 kcal · 36 g protein per serving
Tomato and butter bean soup with basil
A tomato soup with butter beans and a great deal of basil.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 20 September 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm the tomato base loses its raw edge in 20 minutes
- Photograph the finished bowl
- Time
- About 45 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 520 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 27 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains milk. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- chopped tomatoes. Tinned tomatoes vary in added salt; the sodium figure uses a standard salted tin.
- passata. Some passata is salted; check the label.
- vegetable stock. Vegetable stock often contains celery, and some contain milk or gluten; check the label, especially if you need it vegan.
- Parmesan. Parmigiano Reggiano is made with animal rennet, so it is not vegetarian. Vegetarian Italian-style hard cheeses are widely sold.
Cooking steps
Soften the diced onion and sliced garlic in the oil over medium-low heat for 8 minutes.
Add the tinned tomatoes, the passata and the stock, and simmer for 20 minutes, until the soup has darkened and no longer tastes raw.
Add the drained butter beans and warm through for 5 minutes without boiling hard.
Take the pan off the heat. Tear in the basil, leaves and all, and let it sit for 2 minutes.
Serve with the Parmesan grated over.
The useful detail
Tear the basil in off the heat and never cook it. Boiled basil turns grey within a minute and the flavour goes with the colour.
Make it work for you
One serving is A deep bowl, half the pot. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Cannellini beans instead of butter beans
Smaller and firmer.
Per serving: about the same energy, about the same protein, about the same fat.
Vegetarian hard cheese instead of Parmesan
Identical, and it makes the soup vegetarian.
Per serving: about the same energy, about the same protein, about the same fat.
Dried oregano instead of basil
Drier and more resinous. Add it with the tomatoes rather than at the end.
Per serving: about the same energy, about the same protein, about the same fat.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A tomato soup with enough beans in it to count as a meal, rather than a bowl of tomato that leaves you hungry an hour later.
| Energy | 520 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 27 g |
| Fat | 15 g |
| of which saturates | 4 g |
| Carbohydrate | 78 g |
| of which sugars | 19 g |
| Fibre | 18 g |
| Sodium | 1,870 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 2. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| onion | 120 g | FDC 170000Onions, raw | 48 kcal | 1.3 g |
| garlic | 10 g | FDC 169230Garlic, raw | 15 kcal | 0.6 g |
| olive oil | 18 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 161 kcal | 0.0 g |
| chopped tomatoes | 400 g | FDC 170051Tomatoes, red, ripe, canned, packed in tomato juice | 64 kcal | 3.2 g |
| passata | 400 g | FDC 170460Tomato products, canned, puree, without salt addedCalculated with FoodData Central's unsalted tinned tomato purée record, the closest match to sieved passata. | 152 kcal | 6.6 g |
| vegetable stock | 490 g | FDC 171583Soup, vegetable broth, ready to serve | 25 kcal | 1.2 g |
| butter beans | 400 g | FDC 175204Beans, white, mature seeds, cannedFoodData Central has no record for tinned butter beans, which are mature lima beans. Calculated as tinned white beans, the closest tinned bean it records; the two are close in energy and protein, but your tin's label is the exact figure. | 456 kcal | 29.0 g |
| fresh basil | 20 g | FDC 172232Basil, fresh | 5 kcal | 0.6 g |
| Parmesan | 30 g | FDC 170848Cheese, parmesan, hard | 118 kcal | 10.7 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 1042 kcal | 53.3 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool it quickly, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours. The FDA chart gives soups and stews 3 to 4 days. Add fresh basil when you reheat; the first lot will have given up.
- In the freezer
- The same chart gives soups and stews 2 to 3 months in the freezer for best quality.
- Reheating
- Reheat until it reaches 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout, stirring so it heats evenly.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
Try another recipe
Butternut, white bean and sage soup
Roasted squash and white beans blended into a smooth sage soup.
About 50 min · 345 kcal · 20 g protein per serving
Vegetarian