fantastic for a meal or gathering.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 40 mins |
| Servings: | 5 |
| Yield: | 5 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 (3.5 ounce) links mild Italian sausage, casings removed
- 1 bulb fennel, finely chopped
- 3 cups chicken broth, divided
- 4 (15 ounce) cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained, divided
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
- ½ teaspoon truffle salt
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling (Optional)
Instructions
- Turn on a multi-functional pressure cooker (such as Instant Pot®) and select Saute function. Once hot, add butter, followed by sausage and fennel. Stir and break up sausage. Cook, stirring, until sausage is browned, about 5 minutes. Pour in 1 cup chicken broth slowly, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Pour in 2 cans of drained cannellini beans. Cancel Saute mode.
- Close and lock the lid. Select high pressure according to manufacturer’s instructions; set timer for 5 minutes. Allow 10 to 15 minutes for pressure to build.
- Meanwhile, combine remaining 2 cups chicken broth and 2 cans of beans in a blender; blend on high until smooth.
- Release pressure using the natural-release method according to manufacturer’s instructions for 5 minutes. Release remaining pressure using the quick-release method according to manufacturer’s instructions, about 5 minutes. Unlock and remove the lid. Add pureed beans, thyme, and truffle salt to soup; mix to combine.
- Ladle soup into bowls and serve with a drizzle of olive oil.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 458 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 52 g |
| Cholesterol | 31 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 14 g |
| Protein | 22 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 2100 mg |
| Sugars | 1 g |
| Fat | 17 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This soup is delicious and easy to prepare. I used a half pound each of sweet Italian sausage and hot Italian sausage. Will add spinach or kale next time.
It was bland. The fennel couldn’t carry flavoring the beans by itself. The thyme did help, but had to add more. I’ll try it again with onion and celery added. Total waste of time and resources to break out the Instant Pot for 5 Min on canned beans. A little too watery for me
My family loved this soup! We added extra sausage, potatoes diced up and some onion – and it really enhanced the flavor – you can do so much with this soup – even add bacon crisps!!
Real good
I made it the “traditional” stove top method. A very nice subtle flavor. This was my first time using fennel. Definitely a keeper.
so easy! and wayyyy tasty !
This is a great soup. I make it all the time now, and do NOT use and Insta-Pot or pressure cooker. Just do it on the Stove. No alterations needs, except perhaps reduce the salt, and add more to taste if needed.
This is an insta-pot/pressure cooker version of one of many types of white bean soups. Very easy to adjust, make and modify to taste. Basically, sweat aromatics (mirepoix), add desired herbs/spices, canned beans, and broth, simmer….and use an immersion blender to desired consistency. Make it brothy and add potatoes or add ham, so many possibilities.
I was excited about the promise of this recipe, simple to make and looks wonderful on a cold winter night. I always follow a recipe exactly on the first attempt but my family agrees that there needs to be far more spicing. The sausage is too bland, and the truffle salt? Forget spending extra money on something “fancy”- I’m sorry I did- because it added nothing to the soup flavor. The thyme is wonderful but you can’t overwhelm the soup with that being the exclusive flavor. Perhaps hot sausage or your own favorite spice combinations would even this out. I would also add 2 bulbs of fennel or an onion if you can’t get the fennel. My last comment is purely our personal tastes…when we see creamy soup as a recipe, we assume it is going to have a slightly thicker body to it. This was very watery, perhaps because you don’t cook things down in an instant pot, all the water just goes right back into the dish as you are opening the pot. I think cooking this down in a pot afterwards would help with this situation but then you are adding all the time back on that the Instant Pot is supposed to save! This is a great idea, just fell short with us.
I made this last night and it was so delicious. Skipped fennel since the hubby is not a fan, but I would’ve like it. It was so creamy and tasty! I kept getting more bread to dip into it! Yum…this is a keeper. Thanks.
Love this soup! I, too, made it on the stovetop and it was great! The only change I made, after reading other reviews, was to use hot Italian sausage for a bit more heat and flavor. Excellent recipe!
Love this recipe! It’s in regular rotation at our house.
I love this! Added fresh toasted anise seed on top. Found cannellini beans dry at my local Indian market. This will totally cut down on cost compared to canned
Delicious. You did reduce the amount of sausage for health reasons and used fennel seed instead of fresh because I couldn’t find the bulb in the store. Loved it and you can improvise I think and it will still be delicious
I went by the recipe, I would not change anything.
This recipe was delicious. I did make some adjustments to make it vegetarian and thus added some additional flavoring to compensate. I wasn’t sure how much 1 fennel bulb was and I had quite a large one so I only used 1 cup freshly minced fennel 2 cups vegetable broth into IP (instead of 1–for a total of 4 cups of vegetable broth) 3 beyond meat brats (vegetarian) 1/2 tsp onion powder 1 cup chopped carrots 1/2 tsp dried Thyme instead of fresh
I made it in a pot on my stove. Delicious, but used more broth. It was a little too salty, so I would omit the salt and then season to your taste!
I made this the other night using a veggie sausage substitute. I cant have meat or pork so that is why the substitution. I would imagine the real sausage would add more flavor. Used some basil and oregano to add flavor. It seemed a little bland but the fennel helped my stomach immensely so i will make this again..
Absolutely delicious! I followed the suggestions of one of the other reviewers and added basil, oregano and fennel seeds. I used vegetarian Italian sausage and cooked on the stove. I will definitely put this one in my regular rotation. Thank you so much for sharing.
I made this on the stove in a regular soup pan. I added carrots. This tasted even better on the second day. I really like the unique flavor the fennel adds.
Great idea. I changed a few things. I made 1/3 amt. I used one hot Italian sausage casing removed. Browned in 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp unsalted butter along with one medium leek thinly sliced no green stems. Added 1 clove minced garlic when sausage lightly browned and leek semi translucent and 1 cup fresh spinach leaves. After one minute added 1/2 can of rinsed white great northern beans. Mashed remaining 1/2 can of beans in 1/2 co unsalted chicken stock and added to mixture with 1/2 tsp thyme, stirred then added 2 cups chicken stock and let simmer for 30 minutes. Let rest for 15 minutes. Great soup.