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
White bean, spinach and rosemary soup
A soft white bean soup with spinach and rosemary.
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 blending half the pan gives the right body
- Photograph the finished bowl
- Time
- About 35 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 500 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 28 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains milk. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- 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, the sliced garlic and the chopped rosemary in the oil over low heat for 8 minutes, without colouring.
Add the drained beans and the stock and simmer gently for 15 minutes.
Ladle about half the pan into a jug, blend it until smooth, and pour it back.
Stir in the spinach and cook for 2 minutes, until it has just wilted.
Serve with the Parmesan grated over.
The useful detail
Blend half and return it. You get the body of a creamed soup and still have whole beans to eat, which is the difference between a soup that fills you and one that does not.
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.
Vegetarian hard cheese instead of Parmesan
Identical. Parmesan is made with animal rennet.
Per serving: about the same energy, about the same protein, about the same fat.
Leave out the cheese
Lighter and less salty, and the soup becomes vegan. Finish with a squeeze of lemon instead.
Allergens: Removes milk.
Cavolo nero instead of spinach
Firmer and more bitter; give it 8 minutes rather than 2. Nutrition is not recalculated.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A soup where the beans do three jobs at once: the protein, the fibre, and the thickening that would otherwise come from cream.
| Energy | 500 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 28 g |
| Fat | 14 g |
| of which saturates | 4 g |
| Carbohydrate | 69 g |
| of which sugars | 6 g |
| Fibre | 15 g |
| Sodium | 2,270 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 | 15 g | FDC 169230Garlic, raw | 22 kcal | 1.0 g |
| fresh rosemary | 5 g | FDC 173473Rosemary, freshA teaspoon of chopped rosemary weighs 0.7 g, about 1 kcal on FoodData Central 173473. That record has no sugars value, so the rosemary is listed here rather than counted, which keeps the recipe's sugars calculable. | · | · |
| olive oil | 18 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 161 kcal | 0.0 g |
| white beans | 500 g | FDC 175204Beans, white, mature seeds, canned | 570 kcal | 36.3 g |
| vegetable stock | 785 g | FDC 171583Soup, vegetable broth, ready to serve | 39 kcal | 1.9 g |
| spinach | 200 g | FDC 168462Spinach, raw | 46 kcal | 5.7 g |
| Parmesan | 30 g | FDC 170848Cheese, parmesan, hard | 118 kcal | 10.7 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 1004 kcal | 56.9 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. Ingredients marked “Not calculated” are excluded and could add at most 2 kcal to the whole recipe. 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. The spinach dulls in colour but the soup is better on the second day.
- 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