An easy soup that’s filling. I prepare 3-5 meatballs from frozen for each person in the soup. Grate some Parmesan cheese for the garnish.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 45 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 5 slices bacon
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ white onion, chopped
- 2 teaspoons garlic, minced
- 2 cups beef stock
- 1 (15.5 ounce) can pinto beans
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can Italian-style stewed tomatoes
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 medium apple, thinly sliced
- ½ cup red wine
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, coarsely chop, and set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, and saute white onion and garlic 3 to 5 minutes, or until tender. Stir in beef stock, pinto beans, tomatoes, celery, and bay leaf. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, cook and stir the apple in the red wine until soft.
- Mix bacon, apple, and remaining red wine into the soup mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Continue to simmer, stirring occasionally until well blended.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 195 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 17 g |
| Cholesterol | 12 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 6 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 447 mg |
| Sugars | 6 g |
| Fat | 10 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This is the BEST tomato soup! I didn’t think it would work, but I have made it in big batches for the freezer, with a pound of bacon, beef bouillon, mirepoix, and more apples. I add cannellini beans and the cooked bacon after I have used an immersion blender to make it a bit thicker. Amazingly good with grilled cheese sandwiches!
I have made this several times, always using my favority crispy apples and Cabernet or Merlot. My friends and family love it and it freezes well using a chamber sealer.
I added fresh tomatoes from my garden, 2 cans of pinto beans instead of 1, 6 strips of bacon instead of 5, 1 medium white onion and 3 teaspoons of garlic, and 1 large okra from my husband’s garden. I’m considering adding 1 seeded jalapeño pepper because I like a little kick in my soups.
I made it as written. Came out Great! Will make again.
I made this for a large group. I adjusted the recipe accordingly but it yielded about half of what was expected. So be careful. All in all this is a very tasty soon soup.
I ditched the onion & pinto beans due to allergies and not having the beans on hand, and subbed some (about 2 tbsp) balsamic vinegar for the wine because we have no wine. It was nice!
Delicious! I mostly followed the recipe but confess to adding a little more bacon and a second can of beans to bulk the soup up a little.
Everyone loved this soup. I made one change, substituting cannellini beans for the pinto beans. Also made a fortunate mistake by using one cup of wine instead of half. Thank you!
We had this last night with toasted cheese sandwiches and it was a good combination. The only thing I did different was saute the celery and some fine chopped carrot with the onion and garlic in the bacon fat. I used Italian Diced Tomatoes because that is what I had. I agree with Swampy63 the recipe definitely does NOT feed 8, even 6 is a stretch. I enjoyed the unusual combination of flavors but I cannot say that we loved it. Felt there was too many beans and maybe it didn’t really need the bacon. I wanted to really love it and that didn’t happen. Sorry… might try shuffling the flavors around somehow at a later date trying to “make it work”.
This was easy to make. I followed other’s suggestions. Use the bacon grease instead of the olive oil, Saute the onion, garlic, and celery together. Pureed the stewed tomatoes. Used dry sherry and added some half and half at the end.
This is soooo good! I wouldn’t make this every time I’m craving tomato soup, but it’s a lovely variation for something a little sweeter. I had no apples but had a pear; I also added a dash of thyme to the soup. Still amazing. I’d make this again. Thanks for the recipe!
I make this every year at Christmas and it is always a hit! The only change I make is sautéing the onions and celery with the bacon. This soup is definitely tastier the next day.
I found this to be odd tasting. It was not a hit in our family.
This was a huge hit! I read the reviews and decided to sauté the celery, onion and garlic in the bacon grease, halve the beef stock with apple cider, and swap the pinto beans for kidney beans. It is simple to make and has very rich and complex flavors. I was afraid it would be too sweet, but it absolutely wasn’t. This is going on the Fall/Winter Comfort Food menu!
This was pretty good. I was worried about the amount of salt, so I used no salt added tomatoes and then just added a teaspoon of italian seasoning. I also used reduced sodium beans and I didn’t add any additional salt at the end. I did find that I needed to use the whole container of beef stock though, so I’m guessing I ended up doubling the amount of liquid, to get the consistency that I was looking for.
This soup is fantastic – we love it, but the servings are definitely off (especially if you are eating this as a main course). I set the servings for 8 and it really only made 3 servings (my husband and I ate it for dinner with grilled cheese and had one meal-sized portion left).
Not any one flavor was predominant; they all blended well. I used a jar of canned tomatoes from last summer, so I added 1 tsp. of dried Italian seasonings. Also used kidney beans since I didn’t have pinto.
Bland
I have been wanting to make this for a very long time. Much to my disappointment, it was bland and more bean flavored than anything else. I could not taste the bacon or apples. I usually give a recipe two tries just to be fair but this one won’t make the second cut.
Finally! A unique soup for me to try on a crisp fall day…I get so bored with the usual soup recipes. This isn’t anything crazy by any means. Its just a nice little combo of ingredients and flavors that work very nicely together. I also love that the bacon in the recipe is drained and you actually don’t use the drippings (while that would be delicious, Im sure) but instead use olive oil to sauté the onions and garlic. It makes for a bit healthier soup and with all the great flavors you don’t miss out on anything anyway. I actually used canned dice tomatoes instead of stewed to cut down on the sugar. Instead a added a light drizzle of maple syrup to the pot to add a touch of natural sweetness. With the apples and the apple smoked bacon I used it was a fantastic pairing. Excellent soup! Give it a try:))
I was intrigued by the combination of the ingredients. I used the bacon grease to sauté the onions and garlic, otherwise I followed the recipe. The aroma is incredible. The blend of flavors delicious. I will definitely make this again. It’s an impressive soup to serve guests.