Recipes › Rocket › Rocket, Roasted Pepper and White Bean Soup
Rocket, Roasted Pepper and White Bean Soup
A vivid, silky soup that starts with deeply roasted peppers and sweet onion, then has a full 100g of rocket wilted in right at the end to give it an unmistakable peppery bite and brilliant colour. The white beans make it genuinely filling without being heavy. This is one of those soups that tastes like you spent the afternoon on it, even though the hands-on time is modest.
Rocket is in season now. More rocket recipes, or see what to sow this month where you are.
Ingredients
- 100 g Rocket, washed, tough stalks removed
- 4 Red peppers, halved, deseeded
- 2 Cannellini beans, 400g tins, drained and rinsedor butter beans
- 2 White onion, roughly chopped
- 4 cloves Garlic, peeled
- 2 Celery, sticks, roughly chopped
- 900 ml Vegetable stock, hot
- 3 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 tsp Smoked paprika
- 1 Lemon, juiced
- 1 tsp Fine sea salt
- 1 pinch Black pepper, freshly ground
- 2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil, to finish (optional)
Contains: celery.
Method
- Preheat your oven to 220°C fan. Lay the pepper halves cut side down on a large baking tray. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Roast for 30 to 35 minutes until the skins are blistered and charred in places and the flesh is completely soft.About 35 min
- While the peppers roast, warm the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and celery with a pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes until soft and translucent.About 10 min
- Add the garlic and smoked paprika to the onion pan and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until fragrant.About 2 min
- Once the peppers are roasted and cool enough to handle, peel off and discard the skins. Add the peeled pepper flesh to the onion pan along with the drained cannellini beans and hot vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.About 7 min
- Remove the pan from the heat. Add the rocket leaves and stir through — they will wilt in about 30 seconds in the residual heat. Blitz the soup until completely smooth using a stick blender or in batches in a jug blender. Take care with hot liquid.About 2 min
- Return the soup to a low heat if it needs warming through. Squeeze in the lemon juice, taste and season generously with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls and finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.About 2 min
Tips
- The rocket must go in off the heat — if you boil it after adding, the colour turns muddy and the peppery flavour you're chasing turns bitter.
- Don't skip the charring on the peppers. The slightly blackened skin adds a smoky depth that is hard to replicate any other way. You want real colour on them.
- Taste the soup before blending and again after — blending mellows everything slightly, so it will usually need a little extra salt at the end.
Ring the changes
- Stir in 100g of crumbled feta just before blending for a creamier, sharper flavour — note this removes the vegan and dairy-free tags.
- Add 1 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes at the paprika stage for a version with more heat.
Keeping it
Cool completely and store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days, or freeze in portions for up to 2 months. Reheat gently over a low heat — do not boil vigorously or the colour dulls.
In the app this recipe finds you
Log what you've picked and GrowMore CookMore matches it to 1,918 more recipes like this one, tells you what's ready before the frost gets it, and keeps the freezer honest. Free to start.
More from the same crop
Warm flatbreads loaded with wilted rocket, soft fried eggs and a smoky harissa yoghurt that pulls everything together. This is a brilliant fast supper or weekend brunch that takes the best of a Middle Eastern flavour palette and puts your garden rocket firmly at the centre. The heat of the harissa mellows the peppery bite of the rocket beautifully.
20 min · easy · RocketA punchy, peppery pesto made from a full bag of rocket blitzed with toasted walnuts, Parmesan and good olive oil, tossed through al dente linguine. This is weeknight cooking at its best — faster than ordering a takeaway and infinitely better. The rocket keeps its bite and vivid green colour because you dress the pasta off the heat.
20 min · easy · RocketThe Italian trattoria classic done properly at home — a well-rested, thinly sliced sirloin laid over a generous mound of dressed rocket that wilts very slightly in the residual heat of the meat. A proper quantity of rocket is the point here, not a garnish. The bitterness and pepper of the leaves cuts through the richness of the beef beautifully.
25 min · medium · Rocket
Allotment keeper in the North East of England, the voice behind the Tony C Smith YouTube channel, and the gardener who built GrowMore CookMore. Club numbers on this page update as members log their plots. Last updated 4 April 2026.