Edamame Bean Soup with Apple and Bacon

Easy edamame bean soup with apple and bacon. Quick to make with a power blender, recipe commissioned by Bramley Apples.

Have you ever been anxious about something not being quite right and then it completely surpassed your expectations?

I had my doubts about this flavour combination. My instinct said it should work but I was also worried it would taste like apple sauce, that the texture wouldn’t be right, that the soda bread wouldn’t go with it. I was thrown by the edamame beans – generally I only eat these whole and associate them with Japanese food. This isn’t normally associated with an English thick winter soup!

I’ll be honest, I’ve never used a cooking apple in the way I might a vegetable but as part of my ongoing relationship with Bramley Apples I was challenged to make a winter soup using them.

Dom at Belleau Kitchen had already produced an excellent parsnip, roasted Bramley apple and cheddar soup. For a while I was struggling how else to put cooking apples in soup. I felt bacon would pair well with apple and considered a pea soup. But I had already done bright green pea soup with cheese and chives last year and didn’t want to go over old ground.

So I mulled my Bramley apple soup throughout January and procrastinated along with my tax return until inspiration hit. I had two ideas so one was back up if this turned out really weird. I expected my husband to pull faces and protest (as he often does with my “creations”). To my surprise this edamame bean soup with apple came out better than I ever expected. The husband ate every last spoonful.

You can definitely taste the Bramley apple. But not too much. It’s there but it’s not too sweet and apple sauce-y nor lost in the savoury flavour. The blended texture of the edamame beans didn’t go waxy as I feared. It’s smooth in the way a blended split pea or lentil soup might be. The soda bread I’d made, turned out to be the perfect accompaniment.

Best of all Ted ate it without any complaints. And that has to be a good sign.

How to Make Edamame Bean Soup with Step by Step Pictures

Trust me – savoury apple soup is a thing worth trying. Here’s what you do.

Gather your ingredients – these few things along with olive oil and water are all you need. You can use the edamame beans (sold also as “soy beans”) straight from the freezer.

There’s no need to even peel the Bramley apples. Because their skins will be blended later on.

Fry the onions and garlic. Next add the chunks of Bramley apples and cook for a futher few minutes.

When the apples have browned slightly, add vegetable stock and frozen soya beans.

When the soya beans are just soft, remove from the heat.

And blend until smooth in the power blender. It comes out this lovely eau de nil colour (and not remotely like my Kermit-y raw cavalo nero soup.)

To scatter on top, fry strips of bacon quickly on a high heat to become crispy.

And serve with a good bread such as my easy 30 minute soda bread.

I can’t tell you how pleased we were with this edamame bean soup and it will definitely become one of my star recipes. I urge you to try it and let me know how you find it!

But what of my other savoury apple soup idea? Aha I will be trying that out as well and if it’s as good as this one I will definitely be publishing it soon.

Have you ever tried apple soup or any savoury Bramley apple dishes?

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Edamame Bean Soup with Apple and Bacon

This savoury edamame bean soup with apple tastes great with soda bread.

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time25 minutes mins

Total Time30 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer, Light Meals, Lunch, Soup

Cuisine: American, British

Keyword: bean soup, cooking apples, thick soup

Servings: 4

Calories: 195kcal

Author: Sarah Trivuncic

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil 1 for the soup, 1 for the bacon
• 1 medium onion sliced thinly
• 2 cloves garlic sliced thinly
• 1 cooking apple (Bramley) chopped into chunks, skin on but no core.
• 1 vegetable bouillon cube
• 1 litre water
• 300 g edamame beans (I use frozen ones, sometimes called Soy beans)
• 2 slices bacon back bacon, cut into strips

Instructions

• Warm the olive oil in a deep cooking pot on medium heat.
• Fry the onions for a few minutes without allowing them to burn. When softened add the garlic and reduce the heat to cook for a further five minutes.
• Add the Bramley apple and raising the heat again, fry for several minutes until starting to brown.
• Make up the vegetable stock by crumbling the cube into a jug of boiling water.
• Add the vegetable stock and edamame beans (soy beans). Bring up to the boil and simmer for ten minutes until the soya beans are cooked.
• Meanwhile, in a frying pan heat the remaining olive oil and fry the bacon strips on a fairly high heat so they quickly brown and go crispy. Set aside.
• When the edamame beans in the soup are cooked, blend the mixture until smooth - I use a Vitamix.
• Serve the soup with bacon strips scattered on top alongside some good bread - such as my 30 minute loaf of soda bread.

More savoury recipes with apple

Toad in the hole with Bramley apples (Maison Cupcake – shown above)

Savoury stuffed baked apples (Farmers Girl)

Pork and apple stroganoff pie with cheddar crust (Kavey Eats)

Pork roast with apple and cider gravy (Supper in the Suburbs)

Beetroot salsa tortilla dip with Bramley Apples (Maison Cupcake)

This easy apple soup recipe was commissioned by Bramley Apples. I was a blogger ambassador for Bramley Apples when this post was first published.