Quick, border-crossing comfort: Instant Pot Lamb and White Bean Soup

Variations of flavorful, comforting Lamb and White Bean Soup appear across much of western Europe. This Instant Pot version is weeknight quick. Recipe below.

CALL IT A SOUP, CALL IT A STEW, some combination of white beans, lamb, herbs and aromatics shows up in Italy, in France, in the UK… And for good reason. It is hearty and delicious. So when we had lots of leftover leg of lamb recently, our own combination of the above ingredients showed up in our Instant Pot.

There is something so elementally comforting about soups like this, whatever country’s lead you follow. It tastes like food we have always eaten and our family has always eaten, for generations going back. It is not a brothy soup—it cooks up thick and satisfyingly stewlike. Served as a first course, this Lamb and White Bean Soup will overshadow whatever follows. We had it as a main course two nights in a row and would have gladly had it a third night, had there been any left.

We mentioned using leftover leg of lamb for our soup. You can also use a couple of lamb shoulder chops, the cheap cut, to make this soup. We explain how in the Kitchen Notes.

Print Pin

Instant Pot Lamb and White Bean Soup

Variations of flavorful, comforting Lamb and White Bean Soup appear across much of western Europe. This Instant Pot version is weeknight quick.

Course Main Course, Soup

Servings 4 as a main course

Equipment

• Instant Pot

Ingredients

• 1 pound dried white beans, picked over and rinsed (we used Great Northern—see Kitchen Notes)
• 1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced on the diagonal
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary (or 1 tablespoon dry—see Kitchen Notes)
• 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves (or 1 tablespoon dry)
• 2 tablespoons lard (see Kitchen Notes)
• freshly ground black pepper
• 8 ounces leftover roast lamb, cut into bite-sized chunks (see Kitchen Notes for substitutions)
• 1-1/2 cups dry white wine
• 4 cups water, plus more as needed
• 2 bay leaves
• salt

Instructions

• Do not presoak beans. Combine them in the Instant Pot with onion, carrots, garlic, rosemary, thyme and lard. Season generously with black pepper and stir to combine.
• Add lamb, wine and water, and stir to combine. Tuck the bay leaves into the mix.
• Close up the Instant Pot and cook for about 45 minutes on the bean setting (yes, there is a bean setting). When it’s done cooking, turn it off and let the pressure release naturally, until the Float Valve goes down. This could take 15 or 20 minutes or so.
• Taste and season with salt, if needed. Discard bay leaves. And if the soup is too thick, stir in a little more water, warming it up, if needed. Serve.

Kitchen Notes

Which white beans? We like the medium size and texture of great northern beans when cooked. You can also use larger cannellini or smaller navy beans.

Fresh rosemary is best. If you must use dried, pulse the needles in a spice grinder to break them into smaller pieces.

Yes, you want to use lard. It adds plenty of umami, along with a velvety quality. You can substitute olive oil, if you must, but don’t expect the same wonderful finish. We like Armour brand premium lard, which you can find in the cooking oil section of the grocery store.

No leftover lamb roast? Grab a couple of bone-in lamb shoulder chops—the cheap cuts—8 ounces or so each. Season them with salt and pepper, and quickly brown them in a skillet over medium-high heat, 6 or 8 minutes total (if they’re still rare, the meat will finish cooking in the Instant Pot). When they’ve cooled, cut them into small bite-sized pieces and use this. If the bones aren’t too splintery, add them to the Instant Pot; they’ll add to the flavor. Then discard them when the soup is done cooking.

Liz’s Crockery Corner. Marion here. This little soup plate is in the Kyber pattern and was made by the W. Adams company in Staffordshire some time in the 1890s.

In 1842, during the First Anglo-Afghan War, the Khyber Pass was the setting for one of the 19th century’s gravest military disasters; and then, 1878, it was the place where the British launched a new invasion of Afghanistan and the brief Second Anglo-Afghan War. When I look at this plate, I think of John Watson, the companion and chronicler of Sherlock Holmes. One of the things about Watson is that he is a veteran of that second war—one of the few survivors of his unit, gravely wounded in battle and, when Holmes meets him, still struggling to recover from his wounds and deal with what we today call PTSD. This, Watson’s war experience, is handled with great subtlety by Conan Doyle, at a time when war veterans were part of the daily landscape and when Britain was moving briskly to forget its Afghan adventures. This plate stands at a particular point in time: the war was just enough in the past that the name Kyber could seem hazily, romantically right for a china pattern; and just enough in the present that it was an effective back story for a sympathetic character. The first words Holmes said to Watson were: “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”